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- 2023 Archives
- Scientists dig deep and find a way to accurately predict snowmelt after droughts
- Cracking the Case of Missing Snowmelt After Drought
- 2023 Esri Canada GIS Scholarship for SFU
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Daniel Murphy
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Kyle Kusack
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Matthew Taylor
- Anke Baker Wins Staff Achievement Award
- Spring 2023 Virtual Geospeaker Event with Ginger Gosnell-Myers
- CAG Paper Presentation Award - Congratulations to Alysha van Duynhoven!
- Informing & Engaging Urban Youth on Public Hearings: GEOG 363 Final Showcase
- Research Talk: Modeling Urban Wetland Complexities
- Highlight Paper: Quantifying land carbon cycle feedbacks under negative CO2 emissions
- Bright Addae winner of the 2023 SFU ECCE GIS Scholarship Award
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Jonny Cripps
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Diandra Oliver
- 2023 Geospeaker Presentation with Dr. Pauline McGuirk
- Congratulations to Our Graduates - October 2023
- Evaluating the impact of educational goals at SFU
- The Belongings of Precariously Housed People - A Report
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Takuma Mihara
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Adrienne Arbor
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Claire Shapton
- 2023 Distinguished Speaker Presentation with Dr. Deb Cowen
- Cheers to Paul Degrace and his well-earned retirement!
- 2024 Archives
- Professor Nicholas Blomley Honored with the Community-Engaged Research Achievement Award
- Graduate Students Claire Shapton and Marina Chavez Honored with the Community-Engaged Graduate Scholar Award
- Applications now open: 2024 ESRI Canada GIS Scholarship for SFU
- Associate Professor Rosemary Collard achieves 13th place on SFU Altmetric List
- The PEAK feature: GSU hosts inaugural RANGE conference
- Gabrielle Wong wins First Prize in 2023 Student Learning Commons Writing Contest
- Gabrielle Wong receives Warren Gill Memorial Award
- Professor Nick Blomley receives Warren Gill Memorial Award for Community Impact
- Geography Student Union recipient of the FENV 2024 Changemaker Awards
- Senior Lecturer Tara Holland reveals the secret sauce of great teaching
- Senior Lecturer Tara Holland Receives SFU 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Bright Addae
- GIS undergraduate students participate in the Canada-wide 2024 AppChallenge competition
- Senior Lecturer Andrew Perkins Receives SFU 2024 Dean's Award of Excellence in Teaching
- Congratulations to Alysha van Duynhoven, Canada's 2024 ESRI Young Scholar
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Robert Ehlert
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Stephan Nieweler
- Eugene McCann writes on "livable cities" in The Tyee
- Tiana Andjelic wins the 2024 SFU ECCE GIS Scholarship Award
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Marina Chavez
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Mia Fitzpatrick
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Lan Qing Zhao
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Tyler Cole
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Benjamin Lartey
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Olivia Nieves
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Max Hurson
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to John Sykes
- Farewell to Robert "Bob" Horsfall, Associate Professor
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to André Araújo
- SFU Geography welcomes ethnobotanist, Leigh Joseph, as professor of Indigenous geographies
- Physical Geography September: What is Physical Geography?
- Alysha Van Duynhoven communicates award-winning research at international GIS conference
- How Dr. Tracy Brennand’s visionary leadership shaped the Department of Geography - a heartfelt thank-you
- Dr. Tracy Brennand honoured with the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) Award
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Jay Matsushiba
- Human Geography October: What is Human Geography?
- MA Student Joy Russell featured on CBC Vancouver
- Human Geography October: What is Urban Worlds?
- Ajay Minhas Receives 2024 Warren Gill Award
- Dr. Nadine Schuurman featured in SFU news article on Runnability
- GIS Month: What is Geographic Information Science (GIS)?
- Thesis Defence - Congratulations to Joy Russell
- Hallway Screens Slides
- 2023 Archives
- Alumni
Why Study Urban Worlds?
Are you interested in cities, in how they work, and how they change?
Consider a major in Urban Worlds, a new degree at SFU, with courses offered at all three campuses. You'll have the opportunity to look at cities from multiple perspectives. You'll explore cities as sites of culture, politics, economy, and human creativity. You'll learn how societies change cities, and how cities transform society.
Become an urban problem solver. Be trained to take part in shaping your city for the better.
Urban Worlds Major
With over half of the world’s population living in urban spaces, cities matter. They produce, reflect, and amplify most of the dynamics, potential, and problems of global society. With planetary pressures like population growth and climate change, urban spaces need to be more resilient and sustainable for society to thrive in a turbulent world. Students in SFU’s new Bachelor of Arts (BA), Major in Urban Worlds program gain the knowledge and skills to shape cities and urban life for better.
Urban Worlds is a collaboration between the Faculty of Environment and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. There are two streams:
Urban Change
This stream explores the geographic dimensions of urban change. Urban environments are constantly changing and their dynamism is essential to our world as we become a global urban society. In the Urban Change stream, students will acquire a deep knowledge of how cities have come to be what they are, how urban change continues to shape social change, and how to shape cities and urban life for the better in the future. While Urban Change is interdisciplinary, it strongly based in Geography, drawing from many Geography courses, and managed by Geography.
- Focuses on the geography of urban change
- Place-based (spatial relationships that constitute cities, urban regions, and global interurban relationships)
- Foregrounds the dynamics of urban spaces by exploring the geographies of place, politics, gentrification, crisis, food, community, migration, and other fundamental place-based processes
- Ground understanding in constructive and critical professional and civic engagement with the world through urban practice courses
Urban Studies
This stream explores the richness and diversity of human settlement in cities, focusing on historical, cultural, economic, and political dimensions. You learn the common factors of urban life that appeal people and highlights the culture, creativity, and communication that emerge when communities form and gain the tools to interpret these complex aspects.
This stream develops students' capacity to appreciate and improve human agency in city making outcomes.
- Historical, cultural, economic, political
- Develop students’ skills in discovering the richness and diversity of human settlement in cities.
- Understand common factors that draw people to live and work in cities through the appreciation of the culture, creativity and communication that occur when people share and shape a community
- Students will be equipped to perceive and interpret the cultural, economic, historical, and political dimensions of urban society.
Watch Professor Eugene McCann introduce GEOG 161 - Urban Change: An introduction to Dynamic Places.
This course is an introductory course in the Urban Worlds major. GEOG 161 explores how cities evolve, who does and doesn't benefit from these changes while focusing on the social, environmental, and political factors that shape urban life. Thinking critically through social science perspectives, you will examine the influence of globalization, urban economies, planning, social movements and the importance in shaping urban experiences. By understanding these dynamic places, you will gain understanding on how to change cities for the better.
GEOG 161 will next be offered in Spring 2025.
Topics of Study
- Gentrification
- Housing and homelessness
- Climate change
- Culture and place
- Migration
- Spread of infectious disease
- Age-friendly cities and communities
- Racism and Sexism
- Community-engaged place-making
- Transportation
- City's role as a node of extraction in the global economy
Career Areas
In the Urban Worlds Major you can pursue various career paths in:
- business development officers
- city construction
- economic development
- emergency management
- market researchers and analysts
- production utilities
- sustainability
- transportation
- urban and land-use planning
Accelerated Masters
As part of the Urban Worlds major, you will have the opportunity to take graduate-level courses and apply those courses toward your undergraduate and graduate degrees at SFU. Bachelors and Masters at the same time!
Program Structure
Urban Worlds is a collaboration between the Faculty of Environment and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
This allows students two stream options to curate their studies:
- Foundation Year: students take courses together
- Years 2 & 3: students choose a stream focused on their areas of interest - Urban Change (FENV) or Urban Studies (FASS)
- Year 4: students reconnect for capstone projects
Students graduate together with a degree that will create opportunities for graduate studies as well as jobs and career pathways.
Interested in joining the program?
New student? Look at the SFU Admissions page for more information.
Already a student? Contact our advisors at geogadv@sfu.ca.