Winter 2022 Graduate Geography Timetable

The below timetable is subject to change.

Courses marked with an asterisk (*) are offered through affiliated departments. Please contact the host department for enrolment instructions.

Winter session courses begin on January 10, 2022.

Students can access course materials on Quercus.

Building locations can be found on the STG campus map.

Courses marked as room “TBD” are expected to be delivered in person/on campus.

Course Code Course Title Instructor Day/Time Room
GGR1302H Advanced Hydrology and Water Quality (exclusion: GGR407H) T. Duval Fridays, 1-3pm IB235 (UTM)
GGR1816H Geographies of Secularism, Islam, and Gender H. Arik Mondays, 10am-1pm SS5017A
GGR1832H Geographies of Decolonization and Liberation M. Daigle Wednesdays, 1-4pm SS5016G
GGR2150H Special Topics: Geography of Markets (exclusion: GGR430H) J. Zhang Thursdays, 1-3:30pm WI523
JPG1120H Advanced Qualitative Research: Methodology and Epistemological Foundations for Planning and Geography L. Ravensbergen-Hodgins Tuesdays, 3-5pm SS5017A
JPG1428H Greening the City: Urban Environmental Planning and Management T. Conway Mondays, 1-3pm SS5017A
JPG1429H Political Ecology of Food and Agriculture M. Ekers Tuesdays, 10am-12pm SS5016G
JPG1503H Space, Time, Revolution K. Goonewardena Wednesdays, 5-8pm SS5017A
JPG1507H Housing Markets and Housing Policy Analysis G. Suttor Wednesdays, 12-3pm SS5017A
JPG1554H Transportation and Urban Form TBD Tuesdays, 10am-1pm SS5017A
JPG1615H Planning and the Social Economy TBD Tuesdays, 1-3pm SS5017A
JPG1706H Geographies of Violence and Security D. Cowen Thursdays, 2-5pm SS5016G
JPG1813H Planning and Social Policy K. Kamizaki Wednesdays, 9am-12pm SS5017A
JPG1820H Disability and the City R. Buliung NEW TIME Wednesdays, 10am-12pm SS5016G
JPG1825H Black Geographies of the Atlantic R. Goffe Thursdays, 12-2pm SS5016G
JPG1828H Place and Indigenous Research N. Latulippe Fridays, 10am-12pm SS5017A
JPG1909H Advanced GIS Data Processing J. Wang Wednesdays, 2-4pm IB380 (UTM)
JPG2150H Special Topics: Implementing the Missing Middle K. Chapple Fridays, 12-3pm SS5017A
EES1118H* Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling G. Arhonditsis Mondays, 10am-1pm BV471 (UTSC)
EES1126H* Hydrology and Watershed Management TBD Wednesdays, 2-5pm AA205 (UTSC)
EES1134H* Climate Change Policy L. Tozer Thursdays, 12-2pm EV140 (UTSC)
JSE1708H* Sustainability and the Western Mind J. Robinson Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-12pm 315 Bloor St. West (Munk School)

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Course Descriptions

GGR1302H – Advanced Hydrology and Water Quality

This course will take a hydrological perspective in examining the landscape controls on surface water quality. We will consider how the study of surface water and ground water hydrology lead to an understanding of stream water chemistry through the examination of hydrological flowpaths and the chemical interaction of water and the matrix/matrices through which it flows. An advanced understanding of hydrological processes will be emphasized. Pertinent field and laboratory techniques will be introduced. Pre-requisites: GGR 309H/315H, OAC Chemistry or equivalents. Exclusion: GGR407H (UTM).

GGR1816H – Geographies of Secularism, Islam, and Gender

Secularism is a key principle of Western modernity and an epistemic framework that shapes our understanding of the political legitimacy of bodies, spaces, nations, and borders in the contemporary world. While rooted in the social and political legacies of Enlightenment philosophy, secularism has become more contested in relation to the heightened visibility of Islam, Islamist politics, identities and cultural practices in the second half of the 20th century. In this course we critically explore the geographies of secularism and the key debates around concepts of secularity, religion and secularization from feminist, post-colonial and anti-capitalist perspectives with a focus on Islam and the Islamic world. This course will examine the genealogy of secularism, its relationship to Western colonialism and Orientalist thought, and its discursive currency in some non-Western contexts as a fixture of Western modernity. It will question the assumed neutrality of the separation between ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ in the context of Muslim identities and cultural practices and examine secularism’s gendered, racialized and historically specific constructions of subjectivity, space and politics. The course will have an interdisciplinary perspective that will draw from studies in geography, political science, security studies, anthropology, literature, and gender studies. It will bring in case studies primarily from the Middle Eastern context as well as through the experience of xenophobia and Islamophobia of Muslim populations in Europe and North America. We will consider questions such as: what is the relationship of secularism to the global resurgence of Islamic movements? Whose “values” are in the Quebec charter of values? How has secularism shaped the designation of women’s bodies and spaces in the context of hijab and burqa debates in the West? How can we understand concepts of freedom, rights and agency in the context of Muslim women’s activism? How does secularism designate security and risk to Muslim identities in the context of global war on terror? The course will be in seminar format and course evaluation will be based on weekly reading reflections, a final research paper and an in-class presentation in a conference panel format on the last day of class.

GGR1832H – Geographies of Decolonization and Liberation

This course examines theorizations of decolonization, liberation and freedom by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) thinkers/organizers. Course participants will examine the entanglements of (settler) colonialism, racial capitalism, anti-Black racism and white supremacy, as well as social movements and everyday practices of decolonization and liberation. We will discuss how BIPOC geographies are deeply interconnected, and together necessary for radical transformative change and decolonial futures.

GGR2150H – Special Topics: Geography of Markets

Focuses on actually-existing markets and their geographically-mediated formation and assemblage. Explores how markets are produced, stabilized, reshaped and fall apart at multiple geographic scales. We examine issues such as the debates on states versus markets, embeddedness of markets, neoliberalism and moral justification of markets, varieties of capitalism, regionally variegated capitalism, post-socialist market transitions, and the dynamic evolution of market institutions and economic landscapes. Exclusion: GGR430H (STG).

JPG1120H – Advanced Qualitative Research: Methodology and Epistemological Foundations for Planning and Geography

This course arises out of the interest of doctoral students in Planning and Geography who desire to acquire rigorous qualitative research skills that would complement their research interests, assist in developing their dissertation proposals, and contribute to preparation for a career as educators and scholars in academia and beyond. The primary concern is to develop a deep understanding of a range of qualitative research methods and their epistemological foundations, with an emphasis on ethnographic approaches. Readings and discussions will be oriented to developing a philosophical understanding of the epistemology and ontology of knowledge so that students can develop a critical approach to research design. Readings reflect an understanding that doctoral planning and geography students commonly conduct ethnographic research in international settings, which requires an ability to read and interpret complex meanings, as well as attend to the politics of knowledge production and representation. The course will also address basic qualitative research methods, such as interviews and discourse analysis, and approaches to analysis (including the use of qualitative analysis software) – with a focus on critical approaches to knowledge production and researchers’ positionality. The course is organized as a seminar with a heavy emphasis on collective analysis of course materials, and each student’s involvement in writing reflections and classroom discussions on a weekly basis.

JPG1428H – Greening the City: Urban Environmental Planning and Management

This course focuses on the recent efforts to ‘green the city’ by integrating vegetation and other green infrastructure into the built environment, including emerging research supporting such initiatives. We will examine greening goals associated with ecosystem service provisioning, individual and community well-being, environmental justice, and urban resiliency in light of climate change. The role of urban planners, municipal policy, private property owners, and other key actors will be examined in-depth. Throughout the course, issues associated with bridging knowledge gaps between the social and natural sciences, unique characteristics of urban ecosystems, and the role of specific decision-makers will be considered. 

JPG1429H – Political Ecology of Food and Agriculture

Agrifood systems, connecting production and consumption, markets and various types of agrarian labour, are undergoing profound social and ecological change. Among these developments are large-scale land grabs, the financialization of food and farming, challenges to settler agriculture and the resurgence of indigenous food systems, the emergence of robust ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ alternatives to industrial and colonial agriculture. In trying to make sense of these changes, and the various social movements that have emerged in their wake, this course deploys the related paradigms of agrarian political economy and political ecology to analyze the forces and social relations that define land-based and food-focused transformations, both historically and in the contemporary moment. The course examines the often forgotten roots of contemporary debates in political ecology and food, that is, the enduring agrarian question.  The agrarian question examines the extent to which capital has transformed agricultural production and the degrees to which producers have been able to resist dispossession and the industrialization and capitalization of agriculture. The course starts with foundational perspectives on the agrarian question from the early 20th century before discussing the renaissance of these debates in the 1970s and 1980s and the emergence during this time of political ecology as a critical approach to the study of food and land-based practices.  Updating these earlier debates the course tackles a number of defining contemporary developments, as noted above, that are reshaping the meaning and character of land and food.

JPG1503H – Space, Time, Revolution

This graduate seminar explores historical, geographical and political aspects of revolution, with special reference to the making and unmaking of capitalism. In doing so, we will approach some key issues of space, time and revolution by revisiting the concepts and practices of the dialectic, ideology and history, in order to explicate their relationship to radical politics located within—and against—the historical geography of capitalism. This theoretical exploration will be complemented by comparative studies of several revolutionary experiences, such as the Haitian revolution, the Paris Commune, the Bolshevik revolution, and anti-colonial as well as feminist struggles in both colonies and metropoles. This course is intended as a study of subjective and objective conditions of revolutionary politics—past, present and future.

JPG1507H – Housing Markets and Housing Policy Analysis

The objective of this course is to provide an opportunity for in-depth analyses of housing, as both product and process, and to apply these analyses to concrete housing situations and current policy and planning problems. Two principal themes are emphasized: 1) assessments of changes in the structural and spatial dimensions of housing demand and supply, and alternative modes of housing provision; and 2) evaluations of housing policies and programs and their relationships to social and economic policies and urban planning. The latter will be undertaken primarily through the discussion of case studies of specific problems and policy issues, the former through a review of basic concepts on housing in the first few weeks of class.

JPG1554H – Transportation and Urban Form

The need to reduce automobile dependence and congestion has been argued widely in recent years, and urban form has been identified as a major aspect influencing choice of travel mode. The combined imperatives of sustainability, healthier cities, and worsening congestion has prompted an increasingly rich body of research on the relationships between urban form, transport infrastructure, and travel patterns, and an array of new methodological approaches to research them. This course critically examines this research and examines planning strategies that seek to influence travel through coordinated transport investment and land use and design control. Both regional and neighbourhood scale issues and strategies will be addressed. The geographic focus of the course will largely be metropolitan regions in Canada and the United States, but there will be opportunity to examine other national contexts.

JPG1615H – Planning and the Social Economy

What would it take to build a ‘social economy,’ an economy rooted in the principles of social justice, democratic governance and local self-reliance? What are the progressive and regressive implications of such an undertaking? JPG 1615 will explore these questions both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, with recourse to some canonical and more recent writings about the interface between ‘society’ and ‘economy’. Practically, the course will look at what role municipal governments could and do play in building the social economy. The case of social housing in the GTA serves as an example—as well as a context for learning about key tools in local economic development. The course will also consider how communities and neighbourhoods are growing increasingly active in developing alternative economic institutions, such as cooperatives, participatory budgets and community development financial institutions in order to institutionalize the social economy at the local scale.

JPG1706H – Geographies of Violence and Security

This course explores the shifting spatiality of organized violence, as well as changing theories of war and in/security. From the historical nationalization of legitimate war as a project of ‘internal’ and ‘external’ colonialism, to the disciplining of labouring bodies as part of the rise of geo- and bio-political forms, to the contemporary securitization of everyday urban life and the blurring of the borders of military and civilian, war and peace, and ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ state space, this seminar tracks the geographies of the political through the logistics of collective conflict. The course will examine perpetual, urban, and privatized forms of war that trespass modern legal, political, ontological, and geographical borders. Finally, we will explore problems of war ‘at home’. How does the practice of war within the nation and the productive nature of war for domestic politics trouble our assumptions about the nation state, citizenship and ‘normal’ political space and time?

JPG1813H – Planning and Social Policy

The world is seeing a clear resurgence of the urgency of directly and explicitly addressing the needs of equity deserving groups in a way that builds on but goes beyond the remit of identity politics. We now have a much richer understanding of the socially structurally and institutionally embedded nature of identity politics — rather than simply the false assignation of identity as constituted through biology, movements like Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, CRIP and MAD movements, etc., have brought a deeper understanding of how policy planning and practice perpetuate structures of inequality. Key to a justice approach to social policy and planning is understanding how policy shapes a landscape of inclusion and exclusion and how ordinary people come to be “read”, rightly or wrongly, as particular subjects based on the prescriptive aspects of policy.

We are now at a moment when diverse social movements are beginning to take upon themselves the reimagining or promotion of much more ambitious alternative modes of governance, which would replace rather than simply amend existing structures. This can be found in widespread calls the redesign of institutional landscapes, from defunding of the police to expansive programs of truth and reconciliation. This course in social policy and planning calls upon us to rethink participation, consultation, experiential knowledge and our engagement as planners with existing power structures – this is not the moment to abandon social planning, but the time to reinvent it.

JPG1820H – Disability and the City

What is disability? And, what do we think we know about it? What is everyday life like for persons with disabilities in the city? What does it mean to think about disability intersectionally? And, what, if any, gap is there between the rights of persons with disabilities and how systems, services, and insitutions function (or don’t)? These are just some of the questions that we will address in this course. For many of you, this is likely your first course about disability. To help navigate this space, we begin by working through different ways of conceptualizing disability – i.e., the “models” of disability. Here, we will consider everything from theological perspectives on disability, to the social model and beyond. Within this early part of the course, we will take on and work through fairly recent ontological and epistemological debates regarding the “definition” and “description” of disability. From there, we will move closer to the everyday lives of persons with disabilties in the contemporary city. We will not necessarily limit our analysis to the Western context, and will consider disability within a global cities context. In the second half of the course, we will work through and learn how to navigate the terrain of disablity rights, moving ever closer to disability and the city. Here, we will use case studies (from education, to school transport to bike lanes and active transport infrastructre more broadly), and – COVID willing, experiential learning, to explore the realization (or lack thereof) of disability rights within the context of the institutional, material, and social dimensions of cities.  

JPG1825H – Black Geographies of the Atlantic

Beyond a physical region, the Atlantic can be understood as a site through which techniques for the exploitation of land, people and the environment emerged, with enduring implications for world trajectories. This course traces a genealogy of contested spacetimes spanning the colonial state, the plantation, and urban neighborhoods and streets. We learn about representations of Blackness as they are made and remade through time such as: the “dangerous Blacks” of the Haitian revolution; the British West Indian ex-slave “unwilling” to work; a sanitized version of the Black small farmer; the anti-colonialist land invader; and the “illegal squatter” who is no longer recognized as a descendant of Black refusal. Among the traditions we explore are rebellion, revolution, and quotidian acts of place-making through farming, fishing, street vending, beauty services, taxi operation, masquerade, and dwelling. Through these representations and practices we explore the epistemologies of this ongoing encounter and also work to uncover the gendering of complex racial formations.

The course is formed through the lens of Black Geographies, an interdisciplinary approach that acknowledges (1) the spatial and cultural productions of Black people as significant and coherent critiques of dominance and injustice; (2) the visions of alternate futures for the world within these critiques; and (3) the centrality of Black geographies to the way the world works—not at the margins, but as co-producers of space.

JPG1828H – Place and Indigenous Research

This course considers the politics, agency and ethics of place within a research context. It seeks to normalize the meaningful consideration and application of anti-colonial and Indigenous perspectives and approaches in geographical and environmental research, what Tuck and McKenzie (2015) call critical place inquiry. Intended not only for students working with Indigenous communities and engaging Indigenous research paradigms and critiques of settler-colonialism, this course asks what research design looks like when Indigenous sovereignty, land stewardship, and guest and Treaty responsibilities are taken seriously. Attentive to methodology, what Margaret Kovach (2009) describes as knowledge belief system and methods, students will reflect on their worldview, relations of accountability, and the politics of knowledge production on Indigenous lands. The first half of this seminar course will focus on Indigenous conceptualizations and practices of place, agency, and coexistence. This will be followed by Indigenous, Indigenous-led, and anti-colonial research methodology, ethics, and methods/practice. Topics for discussion will include researcher preparation and relational accountability, place, space, and land, Indigenous knowledge and legal systems, research paradigms and ethics, land-based research methods, interpretive analysis and narrative.  

JPG1909H – Advanced GIS Data Processing

This course will complement the existing data analysis and quantitative methods courses currently being taught in the department. It will strengthen and broaden both the theoretical basis and skillsets available to graduate students in geography and urban planning for advanced data analysis in GIS. By introducing both the theory and application of up-to-date data analysis techniques and the state of art of GIS data processing, this course will fill a significant gap in our curriculum.

JPG2150H – Special Topics: Implementing the Missing Middle

Students who want to take this course must first apply for instructor approval via the online form. The deadline to apply is November 15.

About half of Toronto and much of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) consists of a “yellowbelt” of single-family detached homes protected by restrictive zoning rules. With three million new residents projected for 2046, and a housing affordability crisis already in full swing, the region faces a pivotal decision point: can the GTA’s municipalities open up their neighbourhoods in a way that is equitable and sustainable but also politically and economically viable? Urban designers have advocated infill development in the form of a “missing middle” of multiplexes and mid-size apartments, but the municipalities have been slow to adopt and implement these ideas.

In this pilot research workshop, we will examine this issue of implementation through the lens of multiple disciplines, in recognition that adding new density is a complex and “wicked” problem. Together, we will think through issues of physical and financial feasibility, infrastructure gaps, regulatory barriers, socioeconomic and displacement impacts, political and messaging strategies, and cultural considerations, linking theory to practice. Guest speakers across disciplines at U of T will help us build a framework for analysis, while practitioner experts from urban designers to developers to politicians will weigh in on the challenges. In our analysis, we will pay particular attention to how the region can grow in a just way that disrupts patterns of segregation, exclusion, racism, and inequality. Our laboratory will be the GTA; we will work with the City of Toronto and four or five surrounding municipalities such as Mississauga and Brampton in order to develop an understanding of implementation challenges in a variety of contexts.

EES1118H – Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling

This course provides an introduction to the rapidly growing field of ecological and environmental modelling. Students will become familiar with most of the basic equations used to represent ecological processes. The course will also provide a comprehensive overview of the population and dynamic biogeochemical models; prey-predator, resource competition and eutrophication models will be used as illustrations. Emphasis will be placed on the rational model development, objective model evaluation and validation, extraction of the optimal complexity from complicated/intertwined ecological processes, explicit acknowledgment of the uncertainty in ecological forecasting and its implications for environmental management. Contact the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences for enrolment.

EES1126H – Hydrology and Watershed Management

This course focuses on advanced processes in watershed hydrology for furthering our understanding of complex environmental problems, ranging from the characterization of freshwater resources to contaminant transport in aquatic systems. Course topics will include a quantitative understanding of how water moves on, and below, the earth’s surface, how tracer studies can be coupled with physical measurements to understand complex problems in hydrology and water quality, land use change impacts, and approaches to watershed management. Students will participate in discussions on current and benchmark scientific literature. Contact the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences for enrolment.

EES1134H – Climate Change Policy

Climate change affects all sectors of society, natural ecosystems, and future generations. Addressing climate change, either in terms of mitigation or adaptation, is complex due to its pervasive scope, the heterogeneity of its impacts and the uneven distribution of responsibilities, resources and capacities to respond to it between different levels of government, stakeholder groups and rightholder groups.  This course asks: what are the discourses and stated objectives of climate policy, what policy instruments are available and utilized, and how does their deployment affect different stakeholder and righholder groups? The primary focus of the course is Canadian climate policy, however we also discuss global scale climate policy discourse. Class discussions focus on climate policy in different public policy domains, including Arctic marine transportation; pan-Canadian carbon pricing; gender and farm work in a changing climate; urban heat island as agricultural opportunity; low-carbon livestock; forests as carbon sinks and carbon foes; and, justice in the wind energy sector.  In this course students will learn about how different levels of government frame climate change and climate policy objectives, how they interact with stakeholders (e.g., economic interests and environmental groups) and rightholders (Indigenous people), and how decision-makers address complexity in climate policy-making. The course focuses on building critical thinking, research and writing skills. Contact the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences for enrolment.

JSE1708H – Sustainability and the Western Mind

This course will examine how attitudes towards human nature and non-human nature have changed over the period from Mesolithic times until the present in Western society. By reading and discussing historical arguments and contemporary documents we will attempt to uncover the underlying assumptions about the world that were characteristic of different periods in the history of Western culture. The underlying question is whether contemporary concerns about sustainability require fundamental changes in the way we conceive of ourselves and our environment. Contact the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy for enrolment.