Greetings all! Let me begin by congratulating all of the master’s and PhD graduates from the department over the past year. Recent grads have completed insightful, important research on a wide range of topics, from the importance of bedrock in forest health and water cycling (Robert Ehlert, MSc), to innovations in geospatial modelling of global land-use change (Bright Addae, PhD), to the prevention of sexually transmitted infections among Canadian “snowbirds” (Olivia Nieves Echevarria, MA). Geography! You really can do it all here 🙂

I’m happy to report that this brilliant grad research and training is now also better supported in the department through minimum funding policies for master’s (23,000/year for two years) and PhD (28,000/year for four years) students. Huge thanks go to Kirsten Zickfeld, the former Graduate Program Chair, for leading the development of that policy, and to Curtis Platson, our invaluable Graduate Program Assistant, for supporting the work. The minimum funding policy is made possible by generous donations to the department to create the Geography Alumni Graduate Scholarship and the Tennenbaum scholarship. We are all incredibly grateful for this support.

This year, the Graduate Studies Committee is putting the final touches on program revisions in response to feedback from graduate students and the last department external review. We look forward, too, to learning about new master’s and PhD research in defences ahead. Some of this research will also be presented in our inaugural Geography Research Day, featuring research talks from all second year master’s students in the department, as well as thesis-based research presentations from honours and PhD students.

Rosemary Collard

Associate Professor, Graduate Chair

Department of Geography