York is committed to excellence in research and scholarship in all its forms. Informed by a strong commitment to shared values, including the promotion of social justice, diversity, and the public good, we aspire through our research to better understand the human condition and the world around us and to employ the knowledge we gain in the service of society.
Current Research Projects
Summer Institute in Urban Studies (SIUS)
In collaboration with Manchester University, the University of Toronto, and the City Institute, this SSHRC Connections grant will bring the Summer Institute in Urban Studies to York University in Summer 2022.
China Canada Initiative Fund, Women and urbanization in China: Building a transformative knowledge network
This project will comprise three online seminars with Chinese feminist scholars based in China and beyond to discuss issues of gender and urbanization in Chinese cities.
Long-term perspectives on lake ecosystem change with thawing permafrost
Investigate how lakes are changing in response to thawing permafrost in the Taiga Plains and Mackenzie Delta Uplands regions (Northwest Territories), using lake sediment cores as natural archives of long-term environmental change.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Research within the Graduate Program in Geography is determined by the proposed projects presented by successful aspirants. Our students complete a thesis and/or dissertation, which then becomes published as “Electronic Theses & Dissertations” and sits as a public document within our institutional repository – YorkSpace.
Awards & Recognition
Linda Peake
Professor Linda Peake, director of the City Institute and a member of the Urban Studies program and the graduate programs in Geography, Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies and Development Studies, is the winner of the Canadian Association of Geographers Award (CAG) for Scholarly Distinction.
Yolanda Weima
“I am very grateful to have received a SSHRC to honour Nelson Mandela,” she says. “Nelson Mandela also worked very hard as a mediator in the 1990s during Burundi’s civil war, and had a strong desire to see peace that is respected by many Burundians.”
Kean Birch
It’s a rare achievement to have the most cited or the most read article in an academic journal; having both at the same time with different papers is an almost unheard-of achievement in a discipline. But that’s exactly what York University Professor Kean Birch has achieved.
Learn More
The Graduate Program in Geography at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.