Geography is the investigation of our natural world and how people share and interact with the planet.

People. Place. Planet.

Reimagine Your World within the Department of Geography

 

Introduction and a Brief History of the Department

The Department of Geography began at Trent in 1968 with two founding faculty members, Chair, Peter Adams and Fred Helleiner. From the beginning the intention was to develop a broadly based degree program, attractive to three and four-year, Joint and Single Geography Majors. Compulsory methods courses form a large proportion of the curriculum although a considerable range of half-courses in systematic geography permits concentration on sub-disciplinary areas. Fieldwork has been undertaken in a variety of settings including Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Austria, Barbados, China, England, France, Mexico, New Zealand and Trinidad.

Geography has been involved in inter-disciplinary programs almost from its inception both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, including the innovative joint G.I.S. program with Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay.

Faculty research interests have emerged in a variety of sub-disciplines including within human geography - health, recreation and tourism, urban, political and economic, and social, and within physical geography - geomorphology, climatology, pedology, and hydrology. Faculty research is undertakenboth locally and abroad. A publication that reflects the range of interests and sub-disciplines in geography is PETERBOROUGH AND THE KAWARTHAS edited by Peter Adams and Colin Taylor [3rd ed. 2009] which provides a multi-faceted perspective on the local area.

Student activity in the department has been focused around the Trent University Geographical Society (TUGS) - the longest running such society in the whole university! TUGS has established a familiar annual program of activities which ranges from an Introductory local field excursion for students of all backgrounds, to the much-anticipated "highlight" of the school year in the form of the hotly-contested quiz night "REACH FOR THE PEAK".