Program Requirements
This interdisciplinary program introduces students in the Faculty of Arts to a range of urban dynamics and the challenges facing contemporary cities around the world. Students should observe the levels indicated by course numbers: 200-level are first year (U1); 300-level, second year (U2); 400- or 500-level, third year (U3).
Required (3 credits)
-
GEOG 217 Cities in the Modern World (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : An introduction to urban geography. Uses a spatial/geographic perspective to understand cities and their social and cultural processes. Addresses two major areas. The development and social dynamics in North American and European cities. The urban transformations in Asian, African, and Latin American societies that were recently predominantly rural and agrarian.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Forest, Benjamin; Moser, Sarah (Winter)
Note: Winter
Note: 3 hours
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
15 credits selected from the following lists. At least 9 credits must be completed at the 300-level or above:
Group A
6-9 credits selected from:
-
GEOG 201 Introductory Geo-Information Science (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : An introduction to Geographic Information Systems. The systematic management of spatial data. The use and construction of maps. The use of microcomputers and software for mapping and statistical work. Air photo and topographic map analyses.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Elrick, Tim (Fall)
Fall
3 hours and lab
-
GEOG 210 Global Places and Peoples (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Introduction to key themes in human geography. Maps and the making, interpretation and contestation of landscapes, 'place', and territory. Investigation of globalization and the spatial organization of human geo-politics, and urban and rural environments.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
3 hours
-
GEOG 216 Geography of the World Economy (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : The course introduces the geography of the world economic system. It describes the spatial distribution of economic activities and examines the factors which influence their changing location. Case studies from both "developed" and "developing" countries will test the different geographical theories presented in lectures.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Coomes, Oliver T; Breau, S茅bastien (Fall)
Fall
3 hours
-
GEOG 303 Health Geography (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Discussion of the research questions and methods of health geography. Particular emphasis on health inequalities at multiple geographic scales and the theoretical links between characteristics of places and the health of people.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Riva, Mylene (Winter)
-
GEOG 310 Development and Livelihoods (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Geographical dimensions of rural/urban livelihoods in the face of socioeconomic and environmental change in developing regions. Emphasis on household natural resource use, survival strategies and vulnerability, decision-making, formal and informal institutions, migration, and development experience in contrasting global environments.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
GEOG 311 Economic Geography (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Different theories and approaches to understanding the spatial organization of economic activities. Regional case studies drawn from North America, Europe and Asia used to reinforce concepts. Emphasis also on city-regions and their interaction with the global economy.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Breau, S茅bastien (Winter)
Winter
3 hours
Prerequisite: GEOG 216 or permission of instructor
-
GEOG 314 Geospatial Analysis (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Overview of both the theoretical and applied aspects of geographic information science and systems. Topics will include spatial analysis techniques, geographic models as abstractions of the real world, spatial data manipulation and management, and conceptual issues related to geographic data and technology. Introduction to a number of leading commercial software including ESRI鈥檚 ArcGIS Pro.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: McKenzie, Grant (Winter)
-
GEOG 315 Urban Transportation Geography (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Discusses the history and development of urban transportation systems, as well as problems and potential solutions from a geographic perspective. Specific topics include analysis of the social, economic, and environmental impacts; interaction of land use and transportation systems; the analysis of urban travel behaviour; and the implications of various policy alternatives.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Winter
3 hours
Prerequisite: GEOG 217 or permission of instructor
-
GEOG 316 Political Geography (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : The study of the spatial dimensions of political activities and developments at the regional, national and global levels in historical and contemporary perspective. Presentation of case studies relating to the theoretical framework of political geography.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Forest, Benjamin (Fall)
Fall
3 hours
-
GEOG 325 New Master-Planned Cities (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : This course examines the origins, designs, motivations and cultural politics of planned cities, focusing primarily on those currently under construction in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A variety of themes will be explored including design responses to urban pollution and over-crowding, 'new' cities from earlier decades, totalitarianism and the city, utopianism, 'green' cities, and 'creative' cities. The course examines the various motivations underlying the design and construction of planned cities and how they are shaped by power, religion, and political ideologies. There will be a focus on evolving concepts used in city design as well as the continuities and cultural revivalism expressed through urban design and architecture. Students interested in urban and cultural geography, cities, architecture and planning in different cultural contexts will enjoy this course.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Moser, Sarah (Winter)
Prerequisite(s): GEOG 217, or permission of the instructor.
Restrictions: Open to U2 and above students.
-
GEOG 331 Urban Social Geography (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Social space and social time. The reflection of social structure in the spatial organization of the city. Historical perspective on changing personal mobility, life cycle, family structure and work organization. The appropriation and alienation of urban spaces.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Scott, Darius (Fall)
-
GEOG 333 Introduction to Programming for Spatial Sciences (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Introduction to conceptual and practical aspects of programming for the spatial sciences, focusing on programming concepts and techniques irrespective of the specific programming language, framework, or software. Topics include spatial data structures, flow control, classes and objects, and basics of geospatial data modeling and analysis.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: McKenzie, Grant (Fall)
Pre/co-requisite: GEOG 201
Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken or are taking COMP 202, COMP 204, or COMP 208. May be taken before COMP 206 orCOMP 250, but not concurrently with or after either course. Not open to students who have taken GEOG 407 in Fall 2019 or 2020.
No previous programming experience is expected.
-
GEOG 408 Geography of Development (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Examines the geographical dimensions of development policy, specifically the relationships between the process of development and human-induced environmental change. Focuses on environmental sustainability, struggles over resource control, population and poverty, and levels of governance (the role of the state, non-governmental organizations, and local communities).
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Unruh, Jon (Fall)
-
GEOG 409 Geographies of Developing Asia (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Current development questions that are of concern to the Asian region. Emphasis on critically studying the major processes of social, economic and environmental change through regional case studies in rural, peri-urban and urban contexts. Covers important debates and considerations that lie at the heart of development geography.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Turner, Sarah (Winter)
-
GEOG 414 Advanced Geospatial Analysis (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Advanced techniques in geospatial analysis. Geospatial methods and using geospatial information systems. Topics: geodatabases, interpolation techniques, spatial classification methods, data mining and machine learning, including working with a number of leading commercial software including ESRI鈥檚 ArcGIS Desktop/Pro.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Sengupta, Raja (Fall)
-
GEOG 417 Urban Geography (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Classic and contemporary perspectives in urban geography. Range of topics including effects of capitalism, gender, suburbanism, segregation and inequality, property, urban landscapes, and urban space. Emphasizes theoretical issues but includes empirical and/or case studies.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
GEOG 418 Geographies of Race (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : Exploration of some ways race and racism manifest spatially, including how race and racism shape vast built environments in addition to intimate experiences of space. Historical, political, and cultural insight for the ongoing racial politics of place.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Scott, Darius (Winter)
-
GEOG 420 Memory, Place, and Power (3 credits)
Overview
Geography : This interdisciplinary class explores the relationships among memory, place, and political power. The course begins with an introduction to key classical, Enlightenment, and contemporary texts on memory and place-making. It then uses this foundation to examine the symbolic transformation of public space, in particular the construction, alteration, and destruction of monuments, memorials, and museums in postcommunist states and in North America. This approach emphasizes the social quality of memory, exploring the ways in which political interests, economic resources, and social practices can shape something as ostensibly personal and individual as memory.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Forest, Benjamin; Johnson, Juliet (Fall)
Prerequisite(s): One of the following: GEOG 316, GEOG 325, or GEOG 331; or one 200- or 300-level course in Comparative Politics required; or permission of instructor.
Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken or are taking POLI 420, or who have taken POLI 432 when topic was "Memory, Place, and Power鈥�.
Group B
6-9 credits selected from:
Architecture
Although Architecture courses have prerequisites, they are waived for Urban Studies students, but courses at the 500-level may not be taken before U3.
-
ARCH 528 History of Housing (3 credits)
Overview
Architecture : Indigenous housing both transient and permanent, from the standpoint of individual structure and pattern of settlements. The principal historic examples of houses including housing in the age of industrial revolution and contemporary housing.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Adams, Annmarie (Fall)
(2-0-7)
Prerequisite: ARCH 251 or permission of instructor
Art History and Communication Studies
-
ARTH 204 Introduction to Medieval Art and Architecture (3 credits)
Overview
Art History : Surveys the arts from late Antiquity to the fourteenth century in Western Europe. Focuses on the body and space to introduce artistic and architectural concepts, practices, and styles from the late Roman, Byzantine and Carolingian empires to monastic and royal patronage of the French Kings.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Moubayed, Anna-Maria (Winter)
-
COMS 425 Urban Culture and Everyday Life (3 credits)
Overview
Communication Studies : Explores how popular and artistic cultural texts interrogate the dimensions of urban culture that shape everyday life, such as transnationalization/ globalization; gentrification, migration and other displacements; the proliferation of mobile media and communication technologies; and the political mobilization of fear and anxiety about violence and terrorism.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Civil Engineering
-
CIVE 540 Urban Transportation Planning (3 credits)
Overview
Civil Engineering : Process and techniques of urban transportation engineering and planning, including demand analysis framework, data collection procedures, travel demand modelling and forecasting, and cost-effectiveness framework for evaluation of project and system alternatives.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Miranda-Moreno, Luis (Winter)
(3-1-5)
Prerequisite: CIVE 319 or permission of instructor.
History
-
HIST 353 History of Montreal (3 credits)
Overview
History : The history of Montreal from its beginnings to the present day. Montreal's economic, social, cultural and political role within the French and British empires, North America, Canada, and Quebec; the city's linguistic and ethnic diversity.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Heaman, Elsbeth (Winter)
-
HIST 397 Canada: Ethnicity, Migration (3 credits)
Overview
History : Immigration, ethnicity and race in Canada in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics will include the migration process, government policy and legislation, urban and rural migration, acculturation, nativism and multiculturalism.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Zucchi, John (Winter)
Islamic Studies
-
ISLA 395 Melancholic Migrants (3 credits)
Overview
Islamic Studies : The histories, cultures, and racial politics of South Asians and Muslims of North America and the United Kingdom from the 16th century to the present. Focusing on South Asians (regardless of religious identity), Black Muslims, Latine Muslims, Arabs and Berbers, Turks and other post-/Ottoman peoples, Iranians, and white Muslims, with special attention to the Montreal context.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Khan, Pasha (Fall)
Prerequisites: ISLA 210
Management
-
FINE 445 Real Estate Finance (3 credits)
Overview
Finance : Fundamentals of mortgages from the viewpoint of both consumer and the firm. Emphasis on legal, mathematical and financial structure, provides a micro basis for analysis of the functions and performance of the mortgage market, in conjunction with the housing market.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Hammami, Larbi (Fall)
Prerequisite: MGCR 341
Political Science
-
POLI 318 Comparative Local Government (3 credits)
Overview
Political Science : An examination of the organization and conduct of local government in Canada, the United States, and selected European countries. Attention to theories of local government, the criteria for comparative analysis, the provision of public goods and bads, urban political patterns and the constitution of new institutional arrangements to deal with "urban crises" in North America.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
POLI 321 Issues: Canadian Public Policy (3 credits)
Overview
Political Science : The Canadian political process through an analysis of critical policy issues in community development, welfare state, education, and institutional reforms in public service delivery systems. Diagnostic and prescriptive interpretations of public choices in a federal-parliamentary regime.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Ajadi, Ifeoluwatari (Winter)
Prerequisite: at least one other course in Canadian or Comparative Politics
Note: The field is Canadian Politics.
Quebec Studies
-
QCST 200 Introduction to the Study of Quebec (3 credits)
Overview
Quebec Studies : Introduction to the ideas and approaches that scholars have used and developed to study Quebec, including some of the foremost issues that have shaped Quebec historically and continue to influence contemporary life. The changing notions about territory, identity, language, citizenship and belonging, the complexity and diversity of Quebec (11 Aboriginal nations, multilingual, multiethnic and religious communities, minority status within Canada) will also be explored from a comparative perspective to identify characteristics that Quebec shares with other nations and those that are different.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Rochat, D茅sir茅e (Fall)
This course offers students the possibility of doing a community engagement internship (or ExCELR option).
Sociology
-
SOCI 222 Urban Sociology (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Comparative analysis of the process of urbanization in Europe, North America and the Third World; effects of urbanization upon social institutions and individuals; theories of urbanization and urbanism; the Canadian urban system; urban problems in comparative view.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Brocic, Milos (Fall)
-
SOCI 230 Sociology of Ethnic Relations (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : An introduction to the sociological study of minority groups in Canada. The course will explore the themes of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, ethnic and racial inequalities, cultural identities, multiculturalism, immigration. Theoretical, empirical, and policy issues will be discussed. While the focus will be primarily on Canada, comparisons will be made with the United States.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Elrick, Jennifer (Winter)
Prerequisite: SOCI 210 or permission of instructor
-
SOCI 333 Social Stratification (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : The pattern, causes and consequences of social inequality. Among the inequalities considered are those of economic class, sex (gender), race, ethnicity and age. Competing theories of the causes of social inequalities are compared and assessed.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Filkobski, Ina (Fall)
-
SOCI 366 Neighborhoods and Inequality (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : The causes and consequences of neighbourhood-based social inequalities in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Forms of inequality covered include poverty, segregation, ethnic enclaves, unemployment, educational attainment, crime, and health. Methodological issues and social policy will also be examined.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
SOCI 388 Crime (3 credits)
Overview
Sociology (Arts) : Introductory course on methods and theories in criminology. Exploration of the nature and distribution of crime; and critical evaluation of definitions and the measurement of crime; review of theoretical approaches used to understand such a phenomenon; a comparative overview of the criminal justice system.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Urban Planning
-
URBP 201 Planning the 21st Century City (3 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : The study of how urban planners respond to the challenges posed by contemporary cities world-wide. Urban problems related to the environment, shelter, transport, human health, livelihoods and governance are addressed; innovative plans to improve cities and city life are analyzed.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
(3-1-5)
-
URBP 501 Principles and Practice 1 (2 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : This six-week intensive course exposes students to issues and techniques that are applicable in diverse professional planning contexts. The subject matter, geographic area, scale of intervention and institutional location of planning varies from semester to semester. The course focuses on a specific case study and is taught by a visiting lecturer with professional experience in the selected subject matter.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: Bornstein, Lisa (Winter)
(2-0-4)
-
URBP 504 Planning for Active Transportation (3 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : The importance of transit, walking, and cycling as modes of transportation in sustainable urban environments. Planning, design, and operation of mass transit systems, bikeways, and footpaths.
Terms: Winter 2025
Instructors: El-Geneidy, Ahmed (Winter)
(3-0-6)
-
URBP 506 Environmental Policy and Planning (3 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : Analytical and institutional approaches for understanding and addressing environmental issues at various scales; characteristics of environmental issues, science-policy-politics interactions relating to the environment, and implications for policy; sustainability, and the need for and challenges associated with interdisciplinary perspectives; externalities and their regulation; public goods; risk perception and implications; the political-institutional context and policy instruments; cost-benefit analysis; multiple-criteria decision-making approaches; multidimensional life-cycle analysis; policy implementation issues; conflict resolution; case studies.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: Badami, Madhav Govind (Fall)
(3-0-6)
Restriction: This course is open to students in U3 and above
-
URBP 530 Urban Infrastructure and Services in International
Context
(3 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : Issues of practical and theoretical importance in relation to urban infrastructure and services in the international context: science and technology, political economy, policy analysis, policy implementation, public finance, and institutions and governance.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
-
URBP 536 Current Issues in Transportation 1 (2 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : Current transportation issues and topics are addressed from practitioner and academic perspectives.
Terms: Fall 2024
Instructors: El-Geneidy, Ahmed (Fall)
(1-0-5)
-
URBP 537 Current Issues in Transportation 2 (2 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : Current transportation issues and topics are addressed from the perspectives of both professional practitioners and academics.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
(1-0-5)
Prerequisite: URBP 536
-
URBP 551 Urban Design and Planning (3 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : Fundamentals of city-building in Canada relative to municipal, regional, and provincial actions used to guide urban growth and development. Contemporary urban design in major metropolitan centres as shaped by legal, political, and cultural realities. Current preoccupations in city-building: reurbanisation and adaptive reuse of infrastructure, collaborative multi-stakeholder projects, strategic initiatives, changing relationships between professional experts and grassroots actors. Introduction to specific aspects of practice: public participation and community engagement; land development and real estate; project feasibility and implementation; policy monitoring and evaluation; emergent city-building regimes.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
(3-0-6)
Restrictions: Not to be taken by undergraduates before U3. Not open to M.Arch. students.
-
URBP 556 Urban Economy: A Spatial Perspective (3 credits)
Overview
Urban Planning : Economic functions played by cities; economic processes governing city formation, city growth, and the internal spatial organization of cities. Describing and understanding how cities can be interpreted as economic phenomena. Economic origins of cities, the industrial revolution, city systems and networks, the role of mobility and telecommunications, innovation and creativity as urban phenomena, the internal spatial logic of metropolitan areas.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.
