Human Geography

Our courses are organized into three areas of concentration, each focusing on a particular set of issues and concepts. Students majoring in Human Geography use these clusters to organize the sequence of required and elective courses, and are encouraged to focus on two areas of concentration.

Urban Geography
In this area of concentration, students explore the urban dimensions of many of today’s most pressing questions--relating to environmental sustainability, economic stability, and social justice. From the global to the neighbourhood scale, students participate in cutting-edge debates about urban growth and decline, the challenges faced and posed by the world’s megacities, and how globalization is reshaping urban life.

Social/Cultural Geography
This cluster explores issues relating to the social geographies of everyday life. It exposes students to the ways that cultural practices—­religion, tourism, language, and consumption--shape and are shaped by space and place. It challenges students to think critically about how social difference is spatialized, and engages students using film, literature, music, and pop culture.

Environmental Geography
Introducing students to some of the most pressing issues relating to the environment, this cluster challenges students to think critically about how environmental governance takes place and envision how to foster sustainable and equitable development. It exposes students to different ways of defining “nature,” and investigates how economic, cultural and political transformations are changing our relationship with the earth.

City Studies

The growth of Canada’s city-regions raises new sets of urban planning and policy challenges, including economic competitiveness, transportation and congestion, public infrastructure management, environmental sustainability and conservation, neighbourhood wellbeing and social inclusion, health, and quality of life in cities more generally. New challenges require new ideas and solutions. City Studies is a multidisciplinary undergraduate program that introduces students to concepts and skills to understand and tackle problems of an increasingly urban world. The program also offers preparation for graduate studies in related fields. With approximately 200 full-time major students, City Studies at UTSC is one of the largest and most comprehensive interdisciplinary urban studies programs offered in Canada.

Students interested in City Studies must complete general first-year courses in the Social Sciences before entering the program in their second year. Core courses will then introduce students to the program’s three areas of concentration.

City Building focuses on the built environment, particularly urban planning and design, transportation and other infrastructure, real estate and housing, and the environmental challenges of urban growth.

Community Development is concerned with neighbourhood wellbeing, especially the role of community-based groups and organizations in promoting social inclusion and resident involvement.

City Governance addresses the politics and administration of cities and metropolitan regions, including how local government works, ­civic engagement, intergovernmental relations, and public finance.