Overview
Our program introduces students to independent research while broadening and deepening their contact with a selected aspect of Geography. Research can be conducted in these general thematic sub-disciplines: Economic Geography; Feminist Geography; Historical Geography; Indigenous Geographies; Political Geography; Social and Cultural Geography; Urban Geography; Environment and Sustainability; and Geographic Information Science.
What makes the program unique?
Our MA program is flexible, research-intensive, and student-driven. Students come to the program from a variety of backgrounds and are mentored by outstanding scholars in human geography and geographical computational science. They are prepared for careers in government, the private sector, or non-profit organizations, based on the expertise they develop in a specific field of research.
Quick Facts
Research Supervisors
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program
The most important first steps in applying for admission to our graduate program is finding and approaching a potential supervisor in the department. This gives you an opportunity to discuss the research you are interested in completing as a graduate student. Every applicant to the graduate program should, in principle, contact a potential supervisor to confirm that they are interested in reviewing the application. This does not constitute a promise from the supervisor that the student will be admitted, since admissions decisions are made by the Graduate Committee; it only serves as an indication that the potential supervisor is willing to consider supervising a new, incoming student.
Advice and insights from UBC Faculty on reaching out to supervisors
These videos contain some general advice from faculty across UBC on finding and reaching out to a supervisor. They are not program specific.
This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.
- Arefin, Mohammed (Human geography; History of sciences and technology (except medicine and health care); urban geography; discard studies; urban political ecology; Environmental justice; waste; sanitation; geographical political economy)
- Baada, Jemima (intersections of gender, climate change, migration, health and development equity)
- Barnes, Trevor (Vancouver)
- Bergmann, Luke (Social and economic geography; Geomatics; Globalization)
- Dempsey, Jessica (wrestle with the theoretical and historical-geographical complexities of environmental politics as it shapes and is shaped by the entanglement of state, economy, science, and culture)
- Donner, Simon (Atmospheric sciences; Oceanography; Other media and communication; Climate Science; climate change impacts; Climate policy; Coastal Ecosystems; Marine Environment; Climate modelling and prediction; Science communication; Net-zero emissions; Coral reefs)
- Evenden, Matthew (All other social sciences, n.e.c.; Historical studies; Environmental History; Historical geography; Rivers; Water; Hydro-electricity)
- Everhart, Avery (Health geography; Population geography; Geographic information system (GIS and GPS) applications; Health and community services; Bioinformatics, n.e.c.; Social and cultural geography; Sex and gender-based analysis; Ethical, legal, and social issues in health, health systems and health research; Gender and health relationship; Health information systems (including surveillance); Geographic Information Science; Medical Geography; Demography & Population Studies; Critical Data Studies, Critical GIS & Digital Geographies; Transgender Studies; Intersectionality in Empirical Social Science; Health Services Research & Access to Healthcare; Community-Based Participatory Research; Feminist & Queer Theories; Measuring & Combatting STructural Racism)
- Fabris, Michael (Gender, Race, Class, Power, Colonialism, Justice, Indigenous jurisdiction within Canadian cities, Piikani Nation’s attempts to challenge the construction of the Oldman River Dam)
- Glassman, James Francis (Development Geography, Third World Urbanization, Economic Geography, Political Economy, Political Geography, Southeast Asia, Pacific Rim)
- Hale, Kate (characterizing snowpack, climate, and ecohydrologic variability; identify drivers of water availability in alpine and Arctic watersheds; Snowpack water storage heterogeneity and related hydrologic partitioning impacts; Historical and future variability in spatial and temporal hydrologic sensitivity)
- Hassan, Marwan (Other physical sciences, n.e.c.; Earth and related environmental sciences; Geological and Geomorphological Processes; Channel Stability,; Fluvial geomorphology; Landscape evolution; Sediment transport; Surface hydrology)
- Hudson, Peter (Historical studies, n.e.c.; Economic geography; American history; Pan-Africanism and the Black radicalism; Political Economy, capitalism, imperialism; Historical Studies; Social and Economic Geography)
- Klein, Naomi (crisis and political transformation, large-scale shocks as catalysts and accelerators for broad-based social change)
- Koppes, Michele (climate change, glaciers, natural hazards, landscape change, polar regions, ice-ocean interactions )
- Kuhn, McKenzie (response of boreal-Arctic ecosystems to climate; exchange of carbon and greenhouse gases between freshwaters, plants, soils, and the atmosphere; influence of disturbances and management on freshwater carbon and nutrient cycling; interactions of between northern freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems and global change)
- Kuus, Merje (transnational regulatory practices in contemporary Europe, but the empirical focus undergirds a broader interest in knowledge and power, structure and agency, in bureaucratic and policy-making settings; political identity, subject-formation, and center-periphery relations, especially in contemporary Europe)
- Lague, Marysa (Climate modelling; Environmental monitoring; Atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics; Planetary atmospheres studies; Atmospheric sciences, n.e.c.; Mathematical modelling and simulation; Mathematical biology; Other natural sciences, n.e.c.; Climate Modelling; Land-atmosphere interactions; Climate Dynamics; Climate; Planetary Science; Atmospheric dynamics; Water, Ice, Landscapes; Climate: Science, Change, Action; Earth System Modelling)
- le Billon, Philippe (Geography, politics, africa, environmental, human geography, development, security)
- Liu, Tina (Atmospheric pollution and air quality; Earth system sciences; Natural hazards; Climate change impacts and adaptation; Environmental geography; modern human-fire relationships; role of fire in the Earth system; impacts of extreme events on planetary health; air quality and public health; satellite remote sensing and big geospatial data)
- Narayan, Priti (Social and economic geography; urban development; South Asia; state-society relations)
- Peck, Jamie (Social and economic geography; Socio-Economic Conditions; Economic geography)
- Pratt, Geraldine (Feminist Geographies)
- Schwartz, Naomi Beth (Social and economic geography; community ecology; Ecosystem Services and Conservation Policy; Environmental Change; GIS; remote sensing; Tropical forest landscapes)
- Sundberg, Juanita (Militarization and Everyday Life in the US-Mexico Borderlands, environmental dimensions of US's border security policies in the Mexican border)
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