Past Events

Check out all the exciting events we have held and all the students who have successfully defended their theses.

2025

Thesis defences:

  • Michael Pratt (February 12, 2025) - “The Best Laid Plans: Walkability and the Pedestrian Realm in the Willoughby Town Centre”
  • Nicole Brognoli Goularte (March 14, 2025) - "Searching for Home: Exploring the relationship between living in apartment buildings and newcomers’ sense of belonging"
  • Sayeh Faridtehrani (April 7, 2025) - "The Impact of Physical and Social Environmental Factors on Women’s Use and Experiences in Pocket Parks: A Case Study of Salsbury Park, Vancouver"
  • Robyn Lee (April 10, 2025) - "Thermal insecurity and safety in multi-unit community housing in the City of Burnaby"
  • Helena Lin (April 24, 2025) - "Exploring Bicycle-Transit Integration and Cycling Accessibility to Rail Rapid Transit in Metro Vancouver"

Program Events:

  • Finland Field School Information Session (January 9, 2025)
  • Urban Careers Roundtable (May 5, 2025)

2024

Thesis defences:
  • Christian Parr (January 11, 2024) - "Revitalize, Rebuild, Replace: Investigating Socio-Economic Change in a Canada Lands Company led Redevelopment in Chilliwack, British Columbia"
  • Tory Lawson (January 30, 2024) - "How did the City of Richmond and Agricultural Land Commission's Collaboration to Implement Multifunctional Agriculture in the Peri-Urban Fringe Fail in the No. 5 Road Backlands Policy?"
  • Ann Barnard Ball (February 8, 2024) - "The unmarked path towards integration: The role of market and social citizenship in the integration of refugee claimants"
  • Claire Adams (March 4, 2024) - "Using City-owned land to address Vancouver's housing crisis: A case study of the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency"
  • Jeremy McElroy (March 4, 2024) - "A Cooperative Comeback? Study of the recent return of cooperative housing development in Vancouver through the 3-l's Framework lens"
  • Kiara Scott (April 9, 2024) - "Coexistence Planning and Indigenous Urbanism: Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation"
  • Lex Dominiak (May 15, 2024) - "Vancouver’s Temporary Modular Housing Program and the Challenge of Public Engagement in an Era of Urban Crisis"
  • Steven Mater (June 21, 2024) - "Local Government Collaboration on the North Shore"
  • Afia Poku (July 8, 2024) - “Transport Disadvantages and Their Adverse Social Consequences: A case study of SFU commuter students”
  • Richard Stanley (August 15, 2024) - “Gentrification, renters and resistance in Metrotown”
  • Sara Emami (August 21, 2024) - “Connecting the unconnected: Exploring the impacts of digital socializing platforms on life of older adults”
  • Dorin Vaez Mahdavi (November 27, 2024) - “Community Housing and Tenant Well-being Resilience: A Study in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic”
  • Bill Yuen (December 18, 2024) - “Ideas in Mainstream and Non-Mainstream Economics Represented in Arguments About Co-op Housing in Vancouver”

Program Events:

  • Urban Careers Roundtable (May 7, 2024)
  • SFU Urban Studies Online Info Session (October 15, 2024)

2023

Thesis defences: 

  • Rebecca Gunderson (January 12, 2023) - “Emergence and Disappearance:  How did managed retreat move from an ‘emerging direction’ to being removed as a policy option in Crescent Beach, Surrey, B.C.?”
  • Lisa Dekleer (February 10, 2023) - “‘Let's talk supportive housing’: a critical discourse analysis of responses to homelessness in Maple Ridge, B.C.”
  • Maxine Schleger (April 3, 2023) - "Valuing and Assessing Intangible Heritage in Vancouver, British Columbia: The Case of Wong's Market"
  • Richard Demkiw (April 4, 2023) - “A Study of Built Form and Public Life in Downtown Vancouver’s Central šxʷƛ ̓ ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Plaza”
  • Jordan Booth (April 6, 2023) - “Making Connections: Understanding Pedestrian Indices in Squamish, British Columbia”
  • Bruna Maciel (September 7, 2023) - "Making sense of "Problem Propertiest" in the City of New Westminster: investigating governmental problematization of private rental properties"
  • Brad Ingram (November 8, 2023) - "Retrofitting Suburbia: Surrey Central City Twenty Years Later"
  • Robyn Chan (December 4, 2023) - "The impact of place-based grassroots activism when challenging the real estate state: Strategies and successes of the False Creek South Neighborhood Association"
  • Winnie Lee (December 6, 2023) - "Aspirations and Reality of a Compact Walkable Neighborhood: The Case of Surrey’s East Clayton Neighborhood”
  • Kamilah Charters-Gabanek (December 15, 2023) - "From suburb to regional hub: Exploring logistical geographies in Abbotsford, B.C.”

Program Events:

2022

Thesis defences: 

  • Camila Silva (January 18, 2022) - "Cedar Place Redevelopment: A Case Study of public-private partnership in affordable housing redevelopment"
  • Beverly Chew (March 9, 2022) - "Exploring the role of the outdoor built environment for aging in place: A look into the False Creek South Neighbourhood"
  • Amanda Gutmanis (April 14, 2022) - "A Collaborative Governance Process: The City of Vancouver’s 2015-2018 Healthy City Strategy"
  • Stephen Wilkinson (May 10, 2022) - "Deserted to Destination: A Planning and Design Case Study of the High Bridge, Bronx”
  • Farina Fassihi (July 11, 2022) - “Understanding Differences in Travel Behaviour Among Electric and Conventional Vehicle Drivers: Evidence from a One-Day Travel Diary in Metro Vancouver”
  • Ghazaleh Akbarnejad (July 21, 2022) - “Social use and meaning of neighbourhood public realm: lived experience of high-density community housing residents in Richmond, BC.”
  • Alasdair Butcher (July 26, 2022) - “36 Blood Alley Square: Housing Histories of Conflict and Co-production”
  • Aman Chandi (September 6, 2022) - "Making space: Community engaged research highlighting a spectru of intentions, perceptions and ramifications behind the temporary use of transition spaces in Newton, Surrey from 2014-2020"
  • Aphrodite Bourkidis (October 3, 2022) - “Community Spaces as Critical Infrastructure: How the South Vancouver Neighborhood House Contributed to Community Resilience during the Pandemic”
  • Nancy Chan (October 6, 2022) - “Clearing the air: Barriers to improving air quality and reducing environmental inequity along the Clark-Knight corridor”
  • Nichole Holdbak (October 19, 2022) - “Examining Reconciliation within the Vancouver Public Library”
  • Emmanuel Okorji (December 7, 2022) - “Analyzing the influence of regional planning efforts in creating compact developments: A case study of the Metrotown regional town centre”

2021

Thesis defences: 

  • Holly Adams (January 21, 2021) - "Vancouver's Young Professionals and the Impacts of their Financial Challenges"
  • Matt Campbell (April 9, 2021) - "Permission to be Loud: Struggling with Urban Development Contradicitions in the Vancouver Music Strategy"
  • Zolzaya Tuguldur (April 29, 2021) - "Understanding Sense of Community in a Master Planned Community in Richmond's Oval Village"
  • Dionne Co (May 17, 2021) - "Crisis Intimacies: The Dialectics of Shared Housing"
  • Steve Kim (July 21, 2021) - "More than a Place of Worship: Resilience Through Social Capital in the Korean Church during the COVID-19 Pandemic"
  • Natasha Letchford (July 22, 2021) - "Off-leash dog parks: not just for dogs"
  • Jenna Aujla (August 6, 2021) - "Exploring perspectives: Vancouver street-style skateboarders in urban public space and beyond"
  • Simon Godspeed (September 17, 2021) - "An investigation into the governmental rationalities of Vancouver Coastal Health’s interventions in the Downtown Eastside"
  • Rebecca Cuttler (October 15, 2021) - "The role of the City of Vancouver in addressing childcare availability"
  • Nathan Korstanje (November 16, 2021) - "Puzzling, powering, and the transit funding gap: Learning from the 2015 Metro Vancouver Transportation and Transit Plebiscite"
  • Sadia Tabassum (December 6, 2021) - "Embodied Fear, Perceived Safety and Transit-based Mobility among Women of Color in Metro Vancouver"
  • Paul Siggers (December 6, 2021) - "Coalitional Politics in the Development of Vancouver’s Chinatown from 2000 to 2019"
  • Leandro Correa (December 22, 2021) - "Assessing the relationship between Ride-Hailing and Sustainable Transportation modes in Vancouver"

Program Events:

2020

Thesis defences: 

  • Sara Obidi (February 27, 2020) - "Multilevel Governing in British Columbia: A Case Study of Residential Development and the Agricultural Land Reserve in the City of Richmond"
  • Kayzad Nadirshaw (April 1, 2020) - "Managing Stormwater More Sustainably Using Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development"
  • JB McEown (April 9, 2020) - "The Motivations and Operational Realities of Mixed Model Developments in the Province of B.C."
  • Jessica Carson (April 15, 2020) - "Relationship-Building on Unceded Lands: An Examination and Assessment of the Musqueam–YVR Sustainability and Friendship Agreement"
  • Julia Hulbert (April 15, 2020) - "Decolonizing Municipal Heritage Programs: A Case Study of the City of Victoria’s Heritage Program"
  • Yida Lin (April 20, 2020) - "Investigating Accessibility of Public Campus Spaces at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University"
  • Scott Erdman (April 20, 2020) - "A Leap of Faith: Motivations for Place of Worship Redevelopment in Vancouver"
  • Rahil Adeli (May 5, 2020) - "Theory meets practice: social innovation theories and grant funding strategies at the Vancouver Foundation"
  • Luc Bagneres (May 29, 2020) - "Learning in public space: The design process behind Science World's Environmental Trail"
  • Audrey Guay (August 19, 2020) - "Mission to build: Converging and competing interests over church property redevelopment in Vancouver, B.C."
  • David Sadler (September 29, 2020) - "Grassroots Groups and Local Government: Exploring the Dynamics Between the Coquitlam Farmers Market and City of Coquitlam"

Program Events:

2019

Thesis defences: 

  • Kati Tamashiro (March 6, 2019) - "Mobility Pricing in Metro Vancouver: Implementing a Decongestion Charge in the Region"
  • Danielle DeVries (March 12, 2019) - "Household income composition changes with rapid transit implementation: A natural experiment study of SkyTrain, Metro Vancouver, 1981-2016"
  • Chris Puzio (March 22, 2019) - "Housing Affordabiilty Within Complete Communities: A Descriptive Case Study of Metrotown Town Centre"
  • Stephanie Allen (June 12, 2019) - "Fight the Power: Redressing Displacement and Building a Just City for Black Lives in Vancouver"
  • Claire Adamson (August 13, 2019) - "Public Life in Minrou Park: Community Connection in Richmond’s City Centre"
  • Kate Elliott (August 13, 2019) - "Tools of the Trade: How tool selection increases challenges in the work of binners in North-Central Surrey"
  • Joan Chamunorwa (October 29, 2019) - "Social sustainability strategies in green neighbourhoods: An assessment of Dockside Green"
  • Lani Brunn (October 31, 2019) - "Finally Home: Housing that Works for Women Who Have Experienced Homelessness"
  • Sarah Beer (December 13, 2019) - "Fostering Community Resiliency for Displaced Persons: A Case Study on the Saddlebrook Temporary Neighbourhood"
  • Shea O'Neill (December 16, 2019) - "How will restaurants adapt and succeed in a world without plastics?"

Program Events: