Graduate Courses (2011W)

Last updated on December 9, 2011

All incoming graduate students are required to pass either GEOB 500 or GEOG 520 (as appropriate). This requirement should normally be completed during the first year of residence, but in special circumstances and following a request from the student's supervisor the Graduate Committee may delay this requirement until the second year of residence.

The other courses are not all offered each year. Some of the course titles are intentionally broad to permit different themes and issues to be considered in different years.

Most of these courses are seminar-based, involving assigned readings, group discussions and the preparation of term papers; GEOB 507A and GEOG 547(A/B) are readings courses designed for individual students and require the permission of the Graduate Committee.

Please read through this list carefully to make sure that we can offer a programme of instruction appropriate to your interests (though you can take some courses outside Geography).

Course Listings

GEOB 500 - Contemporary Research Trends in Physical Geography (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Drs. Ian McKendry and R. Dan Moore

Contemporary research trends in physical geography. Description and identification of environmental systems. Appropriate measurement and sampling designs in physical geography. Students from outside Geography and Atmospheric Science require the permission of the Head of the department.

[ Course schedule]

---

GEOB 501 - Processes in Geomorphology (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Dr. Brett Eaton

This course is focussed on the interactions between hillslope processes and stream channel networks within the context of a watershed. It is also designed to introduce students to the major assessment tools commonly used to help manage human activities within a watershed.

[ Course schedule]

---

GEOB 503A - Topics in Geomorphology and Hydrology (Term 2; 3 Credits)

Drs. Brett Eaton and R. Dan Moore

This problem-based learning course is designed to introduce graduate students to data processing, manipulation and analysis using a commonly available program (MATLAB and R). The examples used in the course come from research projects in hydrology and geomorphology, but the course is intended for all graduate students in the natural sciences who will be taking a quantitative, analytical approach to their research.

[ Course schedule]

---

GEOB 505 - Permafrost (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Dr. Greg Henry

[ Course schedule]

---

GEOB 507A - Directed Studies in Physical Geography (Term 1 or 2; 3 Credits)

Please email the Graduate Program Assistant at <gradprog@geog.ubc.ca> if you wish to register for a directed studies course.

---

GEOB 508A - Advanced Seminar in Geomorphology (Term 2; 3 Credits)

Dr. Marwan Hassan

Course schedule]

---

GEOG 512 - Climate Change in the 21st Century (Term 2; 3 Credits)

Dr. Stewart Cohen

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the climate change/global warming issue, from its theoretical discovery by the atmospheric sciences, to its potential effects on Canada and other countries, linkages with resource management and sustainable development, and options for response. The course will also cover the ongoing policy debates in Canada and at the international scale, including negotiations for a "post- Kyoto" agreement to be implemented in 2013.

[ Course schedule | Outline]

---

GEOG 514 - Topics in Environmental Geography (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Dr. Karen Bakker

Environmental geography has experienced a renaissance in recent years. This survey course introduces students to current debates, key conceptual approaches, and outstanding recent research within human geography. Students from a wide variety of backgrounds are welcome. The intent of the course is to familiarize students with current literature and debates as an aid to research and reflection on their particular areas of interest. I will support students in the development of outlines for term papers that are closely related to their individual research interests.

[Course schedule | Outline]

---

GEOG 520 - Themes and Interpretive Issues in Modern Human Geography (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Drs. David Ley and Jamie Peck

Themes and interpretive issues in modern human geography. Students from outside Geography require the permission of the Head of the department.

[ Course schedule]

---

GEOG 523A - Advanced Seminar in Human Geography (Term 2; 3 Credits)

Dr. Derek Gregory

The focus of the seminar will be on the geographies of modern war. Yves Lacoste once claimed that 'La géographie, ça sert, d'abord, à faire la guerre', and while there has long been an intimate relationship between war and geographical knowledge, critical reflections on the connective imperative between the two are comparatively recent. But there is now a developing critical historiography and also a human geography critical of military violence. These have in their turn required the development of conceptions of space distinctly different from the geopolitical conceptions that animated Lacoste's seminal contributions: this will not be a course in geopolitics, critical or otherwise.

[ Course schedule | Outline]

---

GEOG 525 - Cultures of Nature in Contemporary Political Ecologies (Term 2; 3 Credits)

Dr. Juanita Sundberg

[Course schedule]

---

GEOG 527 - Remaking North America: Historical Geographies of Changing Environments (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Dr. Matthew Evenden

[Course schedule]

---

GEOG 545A - Topics in Human Geography (Term 2; 3 Credits)

Dr. Dan Hiebert

[ Course schedule]

---

GEOG 547A - Directed Reading in Human Geography
(Term 1 or 2; 3 Credits)

GEOG 547B - Directed Reading in Human Geography
(Term 1-2; 6 Credits)

Please email the Graduate Program Assistant at <gradprog@geog.ubc.ca> if you wish to register for a directed studies course.

---

GEOG 560A - Economic Geography (Term 1; 3 Credits)

Drs. Trevor Barnes and Jim Glassman

[ Course schedule]