Langara's Geography & Geology department, established in 1970, is one of the best-established in British Columbia’s post-secondary system. Our highly qualified, experienced, and approachable instructors are committed to student-centered teaching, and student success. We offer relevant, current, and interesting courses, and carefully monitor trends and developments in the field. As an example, in Spring 2025, a new second-year course focused on the geographies of food will be launched (GEOG 2500: Food, Place and People).
Our courses transfer efficiently to other instititions, such as UBC and SFU, and offer an enhanced student experience due to their smaller size compared to UBC and SFU, where first-year classes may have several hundred students. The majority of our classes are 30 - 36 students in size, while our double sections have a maximum of 72 students. This smaller size enables students, instructors and staff to get to know each other, and to have conversations, and build community and relationships in the classroom.
We offer regular informal career workshops, which give students a chance to chat in a relaxed and informal setting with experienced professionals in various fields related to geography and geology (such as mining and urban planning), and the department maintains a LinkedIn site featuring current job opportunities and careers.
Every year, we host a department open house, and invite representatives from UBC and SFU admissions and geography departments to join us. The open house gives students, staff and alumni of the Langara geography and geology program an opportunity to gather and socialize, enjoy snacks and refreshments, build community, and share information.
A departmental listserv enables us to keep in touch with current students and alumni, and to inform students of department and other events and opportunities.
Our faculty have a wide range of interests in human and physical geography and geology. Within the department, there is expertise in earth science, climate and atmospheric science, geomorphology, geomatics (GIS), the Asia Pacific, globalization, food, culture, urbanization, and human impacts on the environment.
In addition, our department has collaborated with other departments to offer several international field study programs, most recently to Rome in 2023. These unique programs are an amazing immersive and experiential opportunity for students to deeply learn geography outside of the classroom and around the world.
Geography and geology can truly take you anywhere!
Common to all our instructors is a commitment to teaching. Our geography and geology courses are designed to be both interesting and relevant for their own sake, and to help students to meet program requirements, both at Langara and at other institutions to which they may eventually transfer.
The department has many other resources to support learning. These include lab demonstrators; peer tutors; a resource room and computer lab; extensive map collection; extensive rock, mineral, and fossil collection; and equipment and instruments for fieldwork. These department resources, combined with Langara’s excellent college-wide student support services, mean that a student taking geography and geology at Langara will have the tools and support necessary for a superior learning experience.
A World of Possibilities Is Waiting for You with a Degree in Geography!