Fall 2021 Undergraduate Timetable

Fall 2021 Important Dates

• F section courses run from September 9th to December 8th
• Last day to add or change F meeting section: September 22nd
• Last day to cancel F section code courses without academic penalty: November 8th
• Y section courses run from September 9th to April 8th
• Last day to add or change Y meeting section: September 22nd
• Last day to cancel Y section code courses without academic penalty: February 21st

Fall 2021 Examination Periods

• December 10th – 21st: Final examinations in courses with an F section code (term tests in Y section code courses)
• April 11th – 29th: Final examinations in courses with a Y section code

This page was last updated August 24th, 2021.

Please click on course code below to see course description

GGR101H1 : Histories of Environmental Change 
The course will focus on the processes that drive environmental change and how past societies have responded to the constraints that these impose. The emphasis is on the current interglacial, the Holocene, and how increasing population and technology has affected human-environment interactions.

GGR107H1F: Environment Food and People
Examines the relations between food, nature, and society. Food is fundamental to human existence, and central to most cultures; it also has significant and widespread effects on the physical and social environments. Food is used as a lens to explore human-environment interactions locally and globally. Serves as an introduction to environmental and human geography.

GGR112H1F: Geographies of Globalization, Development and Inequality
Economic development and underdevelopment are taking shape in an increasingly interconnected global context. This course examines geographic approaches to “Third World” development, economic globalization, poverty, and inequality. It pays particular attention to the roles of rural-urban and international migration in shaping specific landscapes of development.

GGR124H1F: Cities and Urban Life
Offers an introduction to North American cities and urbanization in a global context. It explores social, cultural, political and economic forces, processes, and events that shape contemporary urbanism. The course adopts the lens of ‘fixity’ and ‘flow’ to examine how the movement of people, ideas, goods, and capital, as well as their containment in the infrastructure and space of the city, give rise to particular urban forms.

GGR196H1F: The Yard: Micro-Geographies of Household Outdoor Spaces
A “yard” is the area of land immediately adjacent to a building, often a residence. By examining micro-geographies (that is, detailed empirical studies of a small, specific locale) of these ubiquitous, everyday spaces, the course explores how yards are intimately connected with broader ecologies, cultures, and social relations, all of which can be explored using geographic theories and techniques. The course also serves as an introduction to other subjects that are relevant to navigating post-secondary life, such as: critical reading; conducting university-level research; presenting and communicating ideas in the classroom; teamwork, and how to benefit from it; and developing social networks.
Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR197H1F: Nature, Conservation and Justice
Every day we read about climate change, species extinction, environmental degradation and the need for nature conservation. It is increasingly becoming apparent that the environmental problems that we face today arise from a deeper crisis relating to human ways of viewing and connecting to nature. This course asks how we can rework human ways of relating to nature, while querying the idea of “nature” and questioning the dominant approaches to nature conservation. It asks how can concerns for nature and for other species be balanced with that for human livelihoods and well-being? How can inequalities with regards to the distribution of environmental goods and bads be reduced? How are citizens and communities in the different parts of the world struggling against environmental injustice and to protect their local environments? How do these place-based movement demand justice and what visions do they articulate for a more just and sustainable world? How do indigenous worldviews offer conceptual resources for rethinking nature and our ways of relating to nature? The course will explore these questions using lectures, class discussion, videos and student presentations. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR198H1F: Mobility and Borders
Is space political? In what ways? What are the implications of thinking about politics geographically? How do political conflicts both invoke and transform space and place? What kinds of alternative political relationships to space and alternative mappings can we imagine? This course will attempt to answer those questions while exploring a wide range of possible contexts in which political spaces are evident. These may include: conflicts over the intimate spaces of the body, identity, and the home; the racialization and gendering of space; the politics of cities and urbanization; the boundaries of public and private space; struggles over land, property, resources and ‘nature’; the political geographies of labour, citizenship and migration; globalization of economic markets and alternative economic political and social cartographies; borders, geopolitics, and the territorial politics of empire; and the geographic projects of colonialism, post-coloniality, modernity, and modernization. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR199H1F: Race, Conflict, and the Urban Landscape
This course will focus on how racial conflict affects the size, shape, composition, and landscape of cities. It will emphasize Canadian and American cities, but other international examples will be discussed for comparison. Ethno-racial conflict has been, and continues to be, an important force on cities throughout the world. Course topics will include housing and employment discrimination, ethno-racial uprisings, and inequality. The course will be a discussion-oriented blend of academic readings, popular journalism, and film. It will serve as an introduction to concepts that are dealt with in greater depth in second, third, and fourth year geography courses. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR205H1F: Introduction to Soil Science
Introduction to soil science dealing with the chemical, physical, and biological properties of soils; soil formation and development; the classification of soils, and the application of soil science to environmental, agricultural and forestry issues. Field trip cost: $20.

GGR206H1F: Introduction to Hydrology
Introduction to the hydrologic cycle with emphasis on the physical processes, including precipitation, interception, evaporation, runoff, ground water and soil water. Basic hydrological models will be practiced. Field trip cost: $20.

GGR217H1F: Urban Landscapes and Planning
Considers the role of planning in shaping the urban landscape through historical and contemporary examples that illustrate the interplay of modernist and post-modernist approaches to city building. Traces the origins, competing rationalities and lingering effects of planning in the production of urban space. Broaches possibilities for engaging planning critically to address challenges of social and environmental justice in cities today.

GGR221H1F: New Economic Spaces
Provides an introduction to economic geography and economic geography theory from the 1970s on, illustrating the different ways that geographers have conceptualized the restructuring of resource industries, manufacturing and services. The crisis of Fordism and the rise of new production models will be given particular attention, along with the reorganization of finance, the rise of cultural industries and the globalization of commodity chains. New regimes of governance of the economy will also be considered.

GGR240H1F: Geographies of Colonialism in North America
This course considers the creation and consolidation of settler colonies in the region known to many as North America. With an eye to the colonial present, the course focuses on the period from the 15th century to the early 20th century. Cultural texts and place-specific cases are used to ground themes and processes that also bear on the wider field of historical geography, including narratives of discovery and possession; ecological imperialism and environmental transformation; the (re)settlement of land and colonial government; enslavement and industrialization; frontiers, borders, and resource extraction; and some of the Indigenous geographies that preceded, were transformed by and transformed, and exceeded the reach of colonial power.

GGR251H1F: Geography of Innovation
Explores how new technologies and industries are generated and sustained, or failed to be. Focuses on the dynamics of leading technological sectors such as electronics, automobiles and biotechnology in their geographical and historical contexts. We critically scrutinise the iconic Silicon Valley along with other major innovative regions/nations, and investigate the key role of universities and finance in driving innovation and entrepreneurship.

GGR252H1F: Marketing Geography
Geography matters in the success of both public and private sector organisations. Using mostly retail examples contemporary location problems are addressed. The geographies of demand and supply are analysed and trade area and site selection techniques are applied. The relevance of the planning context and utility of geovisualisation techniques such as GIS are also briefly considered.

GGR254H1F: Geography USA
After a short historical overview of the making of America, this course focuses on contemporary issues in American society, economy, politics, race, regional distinctions and disparities, urban development. GGR254 Syllabus Fall 2019

GGR270H1F: Introductory Analytical Methods
Theory and practical application of elementary quantitative techniques in geography emphasizing descriptive, inferential and spatial statistical analysis, probability, and sampling.

GGR272H1F: Geographic Information and Mapping I
Introduction to digital mapping and spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). Students learn how to use GIS software to find, edit, analyze and map geographic data to create their own maps, analyze geographic problems and use techniques that can be applied to a variety of subject areas.

GGR301H1F: Fluvial Geomorphology
Elements of drainage basin morphology and hydrology, classification of rivers, stream patterns and hydraulic geometry. Elements of open channel flow, sediment transport and the paleohydrology of river systems. River channel adjustments to environmental change, human impact and the management/design of river habitats. Exercises include experimentation in a laboratory flume. Usually offered every other year. Field trip cost: $20.

GGR308H1F: Canadian Arctic and Subarctic Environments
We will explore the climate geomorphology, soils, hydrology, biogeochemical cycling, limnology and food web structures of the Arctic and Subarctic. Current stresses of climate change and pollution are discussed along with scientific and political solutions.

GGR323H1F: Commons, Commoning and Nature
This course examines the role of commons and commoning practices in rethinking how we share natural resources, nurture life-in-common and build more meaningful worlds. Topics covered include: the political and economic history of the commons and their erasure; social and environmental movements; geographies of commons governance; urban commons; more-than-human commons; and post-capitalist alternatives to address ecosystem emergencies. The course draws from Institutional and complexity theory; feminist decolonial theory; Indigenous philosophy; Black feminist thought; new materialism and posthumanism to understand the challenges and possibilities of reviving commons and commoning practices.

GGR326H1F: Remaking the Global Economy
Examines links between global economic integration and geographically uneven economic development. Focuses on debates and empirical studies on global production networks (GPNs), and associated issues such as offshoring, outsourcing, and upgrading. Blends analysis of both theory and practice of business firms and regional development. Seeks to develop an in-depth understanding of the key actors driving contemporary global economic transformation, within the ‘transnational space’ constituted and structured by transnational firns, state institutions, and ideologies.

JGE331H1F: Resource and Environmental Theory
Introduction to and critical evaluation of major ideas and conceptual traditions underpinning environmental and natural resource politics and regulation. Topics include: parks and protected areas, market-based environmental regulation, property rights and conservation, Malthusianism, and biodiversity conservation. Emphasis is placed on critical reading of primary texts.

GGR334H1F: Water Resource Management
Managing demand and supply; linkages between water quality and human health. Case studies from the industrial world and from developing countries, rural and urban. Implications of population growth and climate change for water resource management.

GGR336H1F: Urban Historical Geography of North America
This course explores the emergence and reproduction of class and racial social spaces, the development of new economic spaces, and the growing importance of the reform and planning movements. Emphasis is on metropolitan development between 1850 and 1950.

GGR337H1F: Environmental Remote Sensing
Principles of optical, active and passive microwave remote sensing; satellite orbit and sensor characteristics; image processing and analysis techniques and software; and environmental remote sensing applications.

GGR340H1F: Health Geography
An exploration of the aspects of health in which place or location matters. Particular attention will be paid to the role of environments (physical, social, etc.) in explaining differences in health between places, the structuring of health-related behaviour in place, and the development of health policy for places.

GGR341H1F: Geography of Latin America
Seeks to develop a general understanding of present-day Latin America by focusing on human-environment interactions, past and present. Case studies are used to understand the diversity of Latin American landscapes (physical and cultural), and how they are changing within the context of globalization.

GGR3421H1F: Geography of Southeast Asia
Examines changes in the social, political and economic geography of Southeast Asian countries. Examples drawn from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines as these emerging newly industrialized countries enter the 21st century. Emphasis on political-economy, urbanization and environment since 1950.

GGR344H1F: Political Economy of Germany and the EU
The goal of this course is to explore the structure and geography of the German political economy in the context of EU integration and economic globalization. This includes providing an understanding of the economic and political system (and its regional manifestations); which was once (and is now again) viewed as a successful socially-balanced alternative to the market-liberal structures in Anglo-Saxon economies. Drawing upon the varieties-of-capitalism approach, the main themes in the course address the institutional conditions for growth. In a comparative perspective, the course explores topics, such as the role of collective agents, corporate governance and finance, collective bargaining, inter-firm co-operation and regional networks, social security systems, and population structure and immigration. In order to understand the heterogeneous challenges to the “German model”, the conditions are explored under which regional economies develop. This includes an analysis of the reunification process, and of the economic and political situation in the new Länder. Further, the question is raised as to how the “German model” can adapt to challenges related to globalization, climate change and economic crises.

JGU346H1F: The Urban Planning Process
Overview of how planning tools and practice shape the built form of cities. This course introduces twentieth century physical planning within its historical, social, legal, and political contexts. Community and urban design issues are addressed at local and regional scales and in both central cities and suburbs. The focus is on Toronto and the Canadian experience, with comparative examples from other countries, primarily the United States. Transportation costs: $20.

GGR348H1F: Carbon-Free Energy
Examines the options available for providing energy from carbon-free energy sources: solar, wind, biomass, nuclear, and fossil fuels with capture and sequestration of CO2. The hydrogen economy is also discussed. Offered alternate years from GGR347H1.

GGR359H1F: Comparative Urban Policy
This course considers urban public policy. Urban policy is not natural or inevitable response to urban problems. It is actively produced (and contested) by an array of voices, institutions, and social forces. Actualized urban policies are thus best understood and evaluated as products of these influences. The first half of the course will cover broad theoretical matters pertaining to the production of urban policy. The second half of the course will focus more intensively on one problem—urban decline—and explore the actualized approaches that have been brought to bear to manage it.

GGR373H1F: Advanced Geographic Information Systems
Advanced theory, techniques, and applications in geographic information systems (GIS), including interpolation, geostatistics, modeling, and raster and vector analysis. GIS project design and implementation.

GGR386H1F: Special Topics in Geographic Information Systems
Content in any given year varies by instructor. Students must meet the prerequisites set by the department (see the Geography website for details in May). Can be used towards GIS, Human Geography, and Environmental Geography programs.

GGR390H1F: Field Methods
Introduction to field methods in geomorphology, vegetation mapping/analysis, soils, hydrology, and climatology. The course includes exercises and a group project during a one-week field camp, a little preparation during the preceding summer, and complementary practical work and/or seminars during the Fall Term. Each student is required to pay the costs of their transportation and accommodation (field trip costs: $300). This course meets the field requirement for Physical & Environmental Geography programs. The field camp normally runs for one week at the end of August. Students must register with the Department by April. Consult with the department in case of conflict or concerns. Course may be limited by size. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR393Y1Y: Geography Professional Experience
Undertake professional placement matching academic interests and career goals. Students meet regularly during the year in class to cover topics such as: reflective writing, project management, career planning, and the application of academic skills in professional contexts. Research project required that connects a topic related to placement with academic literatures. Normally, one day per week spent at placement site. For students in their final year of a Geography major or specialist program of study, or the GIS Minor. Satisfies program requirements based on placement. Space limited. Applications are reviewed in early spring. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR400H1F: Planning Natural Heritage Systems (Special Topics in Geography 1)
Content in any given year depends on instructor. The program in which this course can be used depends on its context. Consult Departmental Office in April.

GGR414H1F: Advanced Remote Sensing
Building on GGR337H1 Environmental Remote Sensing with advanced theories and techniques for land cover mapping, vegetation biophysical and biochemical parameter retrievals, optical and thermal remote sensing of urban environment, and application of satellite remote sensing to terrestrial water and carbon cycle estimation. Basic radiative transfer theories as applied to vegetation will be given in some detail as the basis for various remote sensing applications. Optical instruments for measuring vegetation structural parameters will be demonstrated in the field.

GGR416H1F: Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) as a mechanism for avoiding or mediating the potential costs of development. The course focuses on the theory and practice of EIA in Canada in general and Ontario in particular. Using a broad definition of environment, various components of EIA are addressed, with an emphasis on principles, legal and institutional frameworks, stages in the process, and specific analytical techniques.

GGR419H1F: Environmental Justice
Examines how environmental problems affect people, communities and societies differentially and how marginalized communities and people often bear the brunt of environmental costs, while contributing little to their creation. It uses readings and case studies from across the globe to address the production of environmental injustice and the struggle for environmental justice.

GGR429H1F: Innovation and Governance
The course focuses on a broad range of topics related to innovation and governance, such as (i) technological change and its social and economic consequences, (ii) the spatial effects which result from this, and (iii) the necessities for economic policies at different territorial levels. Since international competitiveness of industrialized economies cannot be based on cost advantages alone, future growth in the knowledge-based economy will be increasingly associated with capabilities related to creativity, knowledge generation and innovation. As a consequence, questions regarding the performance in innovation and effectiveness of policy support become decisive at the firm level, regional level and national level. The first part of the course deals with conceptual foundations of innovation processes, such as evolutionary and institutional views of innovation. In the second part, national configurations of innovation processes are investigated. The third part deals with innovation at the subnational level, focusing on regional clustering, institution building, multilevel governance, and regionalized innovation systems.

JIG440H1F: Indigenous Geographies
This course draws on theoretical texts of Indigeneity, with a primary focus on Indigenous spaces in the Americas. Course participants will examine how core geographic concepts such as place, territory, land, movement and the scale of the body are sites of colonial dispossession and violence, as well as sites for decolonial and liberatory thought and practice. We will primarily engage with Indigenous-led scholarship within Geography and Indigenous Studies, and creative forms of knowledge production generated across Indigenous communities.

GGR456H1F: Entanglements of Power: Race, Sexuality and the City
This course investigates the city as a space sculpted by particular configurations and relations of power, and productive of those forms. It considers shifting urban geographies of identity, economy and desire with a focus on race and racism, settler colonialism, empire, the laboring body, sexuality, and sexual identity. Course participants will engage a series of case studies of particular urban spaces and struggles, drawing on conceptual support from scholarship in urban geography, anti-colonial thought, political economy, black studies, feminist and queer theory, Indigenous and settler colonial studies, as well as literature and other artistic work.

GGR458H1F: Selected Topics in Urban Geography
This course focuses on a special topic in urban geography and covers it with more depth than would otherwise be the case in a survey-oriented class. The aim is to utilize this single topic as a vehicle to understanding how urban geographical ideas are produced more widely. Check the department website for the theme (updated each year).

GGR481H1F: Field Course in Environmental Geography
Introduction to field studies in environmental geography. The course may include individual assignments and group work. Field trips are concentrated during a one-week period in late August or early September. Some preparation during the preceding summer may be required. Periodic course meetings and shorter field trips continue, along with course work, during the Fall Term. Each student is required to pay the costs of their transportation and accommodation (field trip costs: $100). Students must register with the Department by April. Course may be limited by size. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR491Y1Y: Research Project
Specially designed for students wishing to gain experience in conducting research in their area of specialization. Of particular value for geographers interested in graduate study, or positions in government, planning and consulting firms where research skills may be an asset. Students select a research problem and complete a project under the supervision of a faculty member. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate; early discussion with a likely supervisor is encouraged. Enrolment may be completed at any time up to September; open to students in a Specialist or Major Program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR492H1F: Senior Practicum
Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client.” Enrolment requires written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR492H1Y: Senior Practicum
Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client.” Enrolment requires written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR492Y1Y: Senior Practicum
Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning/GIS project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client”. Enrolment required written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in a Specialist, Major or GIS minor program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR493Y1Y: Geography Professional Experience
Undertake professional placement matching academic interests and career goals. Students meet regularly during the year in class to cover topics such as: reflective writing, project management, career planning, and the application of academic skills in professional contexts. Research project required that connects a topic related to placement with academic literatures. Normally, one day per week spent at placement site. For students in their final year of a Geography major or specialist program of study, or the GIS Minor. Satisfies program requirements based on internship. Space limited. Applications are reviewed in early spring. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR496H1F: Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in Geographic Information Systems. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in the GIS program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR497H1F: Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in Environmental Geography. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCE’s and who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR498H1F: Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in Physical Geography. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

GGR499H1F: Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in a social science or humanities branch of Geography. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.