Faculty of the Department of Geography,1988 at the first departmental retreat.
Lord Jim's Lodge, Sunshine Coast , BC

Standing (L-R): Arthur Roberts, Bill Bailey, Paul Koroscil, Brian Sagar, John Brohman, Ed Gibson
Seated in Middle row (L-R): Ted Hickin, Colin Crampton, Roger Hayter, Ian Hutchison, John Pierce
Seated in front (L-R): Michael Hayes, Tom Poiker, Len Evenden

Simon Fraser University was founded in the mid 1960s. Responding to the projected need for growth in higher education in British Columbia, the government of the day established SFU as a new institution, dubbed the "instant university". Geography was one of the founding departments. In order to increase accessibility, the university adopted the trimester system, one of the earliest to be instituted in Canada. Further, with the establishment of a province-wide network of regional colleges in the 1970s, SFU helped to pioneer the system of province-wide transfer credits, by which most academic programs are transferable for credit among all post-secondary institutions. During the 1980s the Harbour Centre Campus was established in downtown Vancouver and the Department extended its teaching to this location. This provides some of the context in which Geography at SFU has developed, internally and as part of a province-wide system.

Four faculty were appointed in the first year, 1965, the new Head of Department being Professor Archie MacPherson from the University of Edinburgh. In 1966, six more were appointed; in 1967 seven more; and in 1968 one more was added, while one left. Three were appointed between 1970 and 1973, and two departed, the net total after eight years being eighteen. In 1974 the department appointed its first female member of faculty. Since then faculty numbers have grown to about twenty-six. In keeping with the need to renew the department in the late 1990s, both to replace retiring colleagues and to strengthen certain offerings, five new appointments have been made since 1998 and several more are anticipated.

Geography faculty have taken active roles in centres and institutes, and have assumed decanal duties and overseas secondments, as indicated below. The ‘geographical presence’ on campus has also been strengthened by the appointment of geographers to the faculty in Anthropology, Criminology, the School of Resource and Environmental Management (REM), and to the Associate Vice-Presidency, Harbour Centre Campus. Joint appointments have been made from time to time with Biological Sciences, Computing Science, Earth Sciences, REM and Women’s Studies. Several faculty members in other departments have undergraduate degrees in Geography, and two of the university’s presidents had some formal geographical specialization. Further, some of our own Geography graduates now hold key staff positions, such as in campus planning and management, university/industry liaison, and student advising in other academic units.

Post-graduate program

Among the first MA graduates, in the early 1970s, are the following: John Everitt, Professor at Brandon University, has served as president of the CAG; Ian Joyce instructs at Douglas College in New Westminster, and at SFU; Keith Storey is Professor at Memorial University; Peter Hugill is Professor at Texas A and M University; Faith Trent is the Head of the Faculty of Education, Humanities, Law and Theology at Flinders University in Australia; Allen Astles instructs at a college in London, England; James Cromwell and Alistair McVey became founding instructors and academic administrators at new BC colleges, Selkirk College and the College of New Caledonia, respectively. As of 2001, McVey has been appointed Principal of the Port Alberni campus of North Island College. He also received the CAG’s Service to the Profession Award in 1999. Four of these took PhDs, one from SFU.

The first PhD in Geography was granted in 1974 to William Archibold, Professor (Biogeography) at the University of Saskatchewan. In the next three years he was followed by Hiroshi Tanaka Shimazaki, Professor of Management (but a cultural geographer and artist at heart!) at the University of Lethbridge; by Ian Hutchinson (Biogeography), a faculty member at SFU; by Gerald Nanson (Geomorphology), Reader at the University of Wollongong; by David Mark (GIS), Professor at SUNY Buffalo, and a 2001 candidate for Councillor in the AAG; and by John Bradbury (Urban-economic), faculty member at McGill University for eleven years until his untimely death in 1988. While many other graduates have pursued academic careers, this list gives a glimpse of some of the work carried out in the early days of the department. Twenty-five years later, post-graduate research continues across a broad spectrum of topical interests and includes collaboration with other units such as the Community Economic Development Centre and REM. There is also an exchange program in remote sensing with Applied Physics at the University of Dundee. In all, through the year 2000, the department awarded 119 MA degrees, 48 MSc’s, and 50 PhDs.

The first year course in 1965 had an enrolment of about 600. By 1968 there were over 1,600 enrollees in Geography courses and over 3,400 by 1971. Six courses were developed in the first year. Twenty-eight courses were added in 1966-67, followed by six more in 1967-68. By 1972 there were 43 courses on the books. ‘Streams’ of courses with pre-requisite structures were developed in physical, economic and cultural geographies, incorporating technical, regional and philosophical requirements. Minor adjustments were occasionally required, but on the whole the program sustained the rapid growth that was experienced during the 1970s through the mid 1980s. It was also during this period that the department, along with others elsewhere, wrestled with issues of ideology in the curriculum. This was a debate spear-headed by Michael Eliot-Hurst. In this connection, the Vancouver Geographical Expedition was formed. This was an activist outreach program that attempted to replicate the work of the Detroit program of the same name. Students and faculty involved with this were also active in support of the then new journal Antipode. The Geography and Gender course, initiated by Robert Horsfall (with students) and first taught in the late 1970s in an interdisciplinary context with feminist colleagues, was the first such course in the university. An undergraduate who pursued this theme, the late Suzanne MacKenzie, became prominent in Canadian geography, and is remembered by the lecture given in her name at the annual CAG meeting. Fittingly in this context, Jennifer Hyndman delivered the first of these lectures at the 2000 meeting, at the time of her own appointment to this department.

In the late 1980s, an extensive revision of the curriculum was undertaken, which strengthened and rationalized the curricular structure. Based upon this revised program the numbers of majors and minors increased through the 1990s. The enrolment of Honours students, Majors and Minors peaked in 1998-99 when there were eight Honours students, 454 Majors and 161 Minors, for a total of 623 students committed to the study of Geography. Large numbers of non-geography students also enroll in the department’s courses, especially BEd students, for whom some basic geography is mandated. A further curricular revision is now under discussion, the structure of ‘streams’ being refined to recognize the growth of geographical information systems and urban studies.

The co-op program has been a feature of the department’s offerings since 1988, growing rapidly after the mid 1990s. The co-ordinater combines Geography with four other environmentally-oriented units across the university and is currently responsible for about 150 students, of which some 40 per cent are Geography majors. Undergraduates subscribe in substantial numbers to the Certificates in Spatial Information Systems and Urban Studies, and the Post Baccalaureate Diploma in Urban Studies is available. The Certificate in Community Economic Development is also popular, and students sometimes combine these certification programs with the co-op program. Also available are the ‘Environmental Specialty’ Major, and the Joint Major with ‘Economics as an Environmental Specialty’. In addition, Joint Majors are available with Business Administration, Latin American Studies and Canadian Studies. Through Continuing Studies, the Department offers a twelve-course post-graduate on-line program in Geographical Information Systems (UniGIS). An undergraduate exchange program, first with the University of the Saarlandes and now with the University of Cologne, has operated since 1986.

Geographers have participated widely in curricular and academic discussions across the university, in keeping with the university’s original commitment to provide a broad, accessible but integrated approach to higher education. Geography was the first department to develop integrated degrees that cross the line between faculties. Thus the Physical Geography program offers the BSc, paralleled by the MSc. Further, geographers Michael Roberts and Mary Barker founded the Masters Program in Resource Management, later reorganized to form the School of Resource and Environmental Management in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. James Wilson, Robert Horsfall and John Pierce participated in the founding of the Community Economic Development Centre, of which Pierce became the first director. Mark Roseland now directs it. Pierce is also the current Dean of Arts while Robert Brown, a dean for some two decades, has served as co-director of the Institute for Fisheries Analysis. (The building that houses the Departments of Geography, Communications, Psychology, Languages and Linguistics has recently been named the Robert C. Brown Hall.)

Paul Koroscil and Leonard Evenden were members of the committee that founded the university’s Centre for Canadian Studies, and each has served as the Centre’s Director. Edward Hickin and Michael Roberts, who together proposed that a Department of Earth Sciences be formed, have both served in the position of departmental chair. Earlier, the interdisciplinary Institute for Quaternary Research was founded with Arthur Roberts, Ian Hutchinson and Michael Roberts each serving terms as director. Thomas Poiker founded and directs the UniGIS Program, while Horsfall serves as Chair of the University Animal Ethics Committee, and has also served as the university’s Senior Academic Adviser. Edward Gibson was for many years the Director of the SFU Art Gallery. John Brohman directs the Centre for Latin American Studies while Lance Lesack chairs the university’s Northern Studies Committee. Michael Hayes has recently been appointed Co-Director of the new Institute for Health Research and Education while Nicholas Blomley carries special responsibility for the development of urban studies. In addition, Archie MacPherson, Frank Cunningham, Philip Wagner, Michael Roberts, Leonard Evenden, John Pierce and Alison Gill have served as members of the academic Senate, elected at large across the faculty or university, while Robert Brown and John Pierce have also served on Senate as Deans. Michael Roberts and George Rheumer have served as Associate Deans in the Faculty of Arts.

Major conferences have been held from time to time, as sponsored and organized by individual members of the department. Three took place in connection with the work of the International Geographical Union. The symposium Cultural Discord in the Modern World was convened as part of the IGU’s 1972 centenary Congress, held in Canada. In 1998 the Spatial Data Handling symposium of the IGU’s Geographic Information Science Study Group met here. This was followed in 1999 by the conference on the Reshaping of Rural Ecologies, Economies and Communities, this being a meeting of the IGU’s commission of the same name. In addition to the IGU conferences, the 1994 International Ginseng Conference brought together a wide range of research-based participants from universities, governments and industries. Volumes of proceedings resulted from each of these gatherings, as edited by their organizers, Leonard Evenden and Frank Cunningham, Thomas Poiker, John Pierce and William Bailey respectively. In 1998 the Inaugural Meeting of the International Conference of Critical Geography met in Vancouver, co-sponsored by SFU and UBC. SFU organizers were Nicholas Blomley, John Brohman and Beverly Pitman. The department also sponsored the CAG meetings in 1975 and the Western Division meetings in 1968, 1987 and, prospectively, 2002.

Colleagues have served in numerous other ways to help shape the academic and pedagogical character of the discipline, and have also made contributions from the local to the international level. In this latter regard may be mentioned the secondment of Shue Tuck Wong to the Asian Institute of Technology for a three year term. Further, since the founding of the department, about half the faculty have pursued and maintained research projects in international contexts. A number have received awards: Philip Wagner was recognized for Distinguished Scholarship by the AAG and Roger Hayter received the Award for Scholarly Distinction from the CAG. Within the university Frank Cunningham was the first recipient of the Master Teaching Award, as well as HM the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal. He also received the Distinguished Fellowship Award of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. The BC Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists has recognized Michael Roberts while John Pierce was presented with a lifetime achievement award by the BC Agricultural Land Commission. The AAG’s Recreation and Tourism Specialty Group recently honoured Alison Gill with the Roy Wolfe award, while Tracy Brennand earlier received the J. Ross Mackay Award from the Canadian Geomorphology Research Group. Alex Clapp and Roger Hayter, with Jerry Patchell (SFU Ph.D. 1992), have recently received best-paper awards from the journals Environmental Conservation and The Geographical Review, respectively. Warren Gill received the Distinguished Geographer Award from the UBC Alumni, while Leonard Evenden received the CAG Western Division’s award for service, as well as the City of Burnaby Heritage Award. Several faculty have held office in professional organizations, three having served as president of the Western Division of the CAG (Gibson, Evenden, Hayter), while three others (Evenden, Hayter and A. Gill) have served as councillors of the CAG.

Evenden, L.J. 1988. "Revising the Undergraduate Curriculum in Geography: The Simon Fraser University Experience." The Operational Geographer, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 5-9.

Hayter, Roger, 1990. "Geography at Simon Fraser University." Yearbook, Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, Vol. 52, pp. 191-207.

Head and Chairs of the Department of Geography, 1965-2000

• Archie MacPherson, Founding Head
• Brian Sagar, First Chair
• Michael Eliot-Hurst
• Michael Roberts
• Edward Hickin
• Roger Hayter
• John Pierce
• Alison Gill
• Alex Clapp