Admission Requirements

The usual prerequisite for admission to the Ph.D. program in Geography is a Master's degree in Geography with at least a B+ average. However, the Graduate Program in Geography will consider exceptional students with a Master's degree in other fields.

Applicants to the Doctoral Program should note that we offer a PhD degree in two fields of specialization:

Critical Human Geography

Since the mid-1970s, a series of engagements with critical social theory have coalesced into a set of approaches broadly identified as critical human geography. At York, critical human geography research addresses the causes and manifestations of inequality and difference in a range of social-geographical and historical settings.  Social and cultural differentiation in various forms is a central concern, whether it is based on class, gender, ‘race’, ethnicity, impairment, sexuality, religion, indigeneity or citizenship.  Economic differentiation is an equally important topic with current themes including the formation of technopoles, the marginalization of some groups and the centrality of other groups to economic structures and the globalization of culture, economy and society. The implications of these diverse changes on forms of work, on social formations, on migration, on consumption and their ecological impacts on the environment, are also of central interest. 

Biophysical Processes

Doctoral work within biophysical processes emphasizes biotic and abiotic processes that operate at the levels of plant populations, vegetation communities and both terrestrial and aquatic environmental systems. GIS and remote sensing serve to extend analyses across multiple spatial and temporal scales. A major area of concern continues to relate to global environmental change and human modification of the environment and involves research that links traditional subfields of physical geography. Our research encompasses a wide range of environments that include arctic, temperate and arid regions.