Message from the Chair

When giving unsolicited advice to students, which is a great privilege of the Professor, I usually start by saying you might not know where you are going, but you should know how to get there. What I mean, of course, is that life is unpredictable, so take one step at a time with purpose and passion. Take courses because they are interesting, and take them to heart. Similarly, the pursuits of a geographer might appear unpredictable, but they are filled with purpose and passion. 

The discipline of geography is most simply defined as the study of human-environment interactions. The need to understand, represent and abstract space and place is as old as human experience, and sits at the core of our discipline as it evolves with the complexity of society and its interactions with built and natural environments. 

We seek to understand our world from the local to the global, focusing on different time periods in the past, present and future, always with a purpose. Our undergraduate offerings began over 50 years ago with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Applied Geography, and today we offer multiple undergraduate degrees, minors and a master’s degree, and collaborate on additional interdisciplinary graduate programs and continuing education certificates.

Together, our Students, Staff and Professors are engaged in the crucial challenges and opportunities facing our world today; learning, testing and applying a breadth of theories, methods, tools and technologies. We focus on the advancement and application of geospatial tools and technologies, and we enrich our understanding of human settlements, cities as systems, urban natures, environment and climate change, resource management, and how to sustain our collective way of life into the future.

We are excited about our discipline, its unique and applied orientation at TMU, and the transformation of our programs currently underway as we look to the future while honouring our past. We are a community of more than 500 students, staff and faculty, emboldened by thousands of graduates, less concerned with disciplinary boundaries than our pursuit of skills and knowledge to solve real-world challenges. 

I invite you to explore our community - our programs, people and activities -  perhaps even join us as we take one step at a time towards a future with space and place in mind. 

Tor Oiamo, PhD 

Associate Professor and Chair