Samantha Thompson

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Research Areas:

I am a feminist urban geographer whose research uses feminist care theory to examine how housing insecurity impacts consequences of the climate crisis. My research helps us to understand how experiences of climate crisis shape and are shaped by everyday care politics in housing, which are crucial in imagining possibilities for more just climate futures. I have expertise in feminist care geographies, urban political ecologies, urban housing politics (landlord-tenant laws and housing co-ops in particular), impacts of climate change on renters’ health and wellbeing with an emphasis on extreme heat, and housing contexts in Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle, W.A. My research is guided by a intersectional, feminist perspective informed by work on anti-racism and decolonization. My current projects centre on two focus areas:

Impacts of the climate crisis on housing co-operatives

In this project, we explore residents’ experiences of living in Vancouver housing co-operatives, with attention to the role of community and support in co-ops, climate adaptation and mitigation strategies in co-ops, and impacts of housing and climate crises on co-op experiences. The project considers Vancouver’s housing co-ops in contemporary and historical contexts, drawing on methods such as qualitative interviews and archival research. More information and updates about the study can be accessed at housingcoopresearch.ca.

Tenants’ experiences of extreme heat in cities

With colleagues in the HEAT research collective, we examine the impacts of extreme heat and other dimensions of climate crisis on tenants’ experiences of housing and housing insecurity. We collaborate with tenant-serving organizations across the Lower Mainland to: measure indoor environmental quality in residential buildings; evaluate impacts of ‘climate safe’ spaces like in-building cooling rooms; monitor impacts of climate adaptation policies; and identify factors that contribute to climate-related rent increases, evictions, and displacement.

Prior to joining SFU, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the UBC Centre for Climate Justice and held a CMHC-SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at UVic in the School of Public Health and Social Policy. I completed my PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle and my M.A. and B.A. at Simon Fraser University. I am currently an editor with the Radical Housing Journal.

Selected Publications:

Articles:

Thompson, S. and Elwood, S. (2026). Feminist Digital Ethnographies. Gender, Place, & Culture.

Thompson, S. (2025). “I hope you can help me”: Tenant careworkers and the accessibility of local state care infrastructure in housing crises in Vancouver, BC. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

Thompson, S. (2024). Caring Housing Futures: A Radical Care Framework for Understanding Rent Control Politics in Seattle, USA. Antipode.

Thompson, S. and Barr, J. (2024). “It’s the hope that kills you”: challenging cisheteropatriarchal possibilities of romance, friendship, and care in Ted Lasso. Journal of Popular Television.

Thompson, S. (2023). “Homes, not shelters”: Critical geographies of home in non-profit women’s housing. Urban Geography. 

Thompson. S. (2022). “Not your ‘poor dear’”: Community, care, and support in women’s non-profit housing. Gender Place & Culture. 

Editorials and Commentaries:

Thompson, S., Mishak, B., Pauly, B., and Masuda, J. (21 November 2025). B.C. declared housing as a human right. Now what? The Tyee. https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/11/21/BC-Cities-Declared-Housing-Human-Right/.

Keller, J., McElroy, E., Thompson, S. and A. Vilenica (2024). Editorial: Archiving the Housing Conjuncture. Radical Housing Journal, 6(2), pp. 1-10.

Vilenica, A., McElroy, E., Lancione, M. and Thompson, S. (2022). Editorial: Carcerality, housing precarity, and abolition. Radical Housing Journal, 4(1), 1-8.

Graduate Supervision:

If you are interested in working with me on questions of climate crisis, urban housing politics (particularly impacting tenants or housing co-ops), experiences of extreme heat in cities, and/or feminist care theory, please feel welcome to send me a brief email with an introduction and description of your research interests and project. I also welcome students interested in engaging feminist and justice-oriented methodologies.