Research Opportunities

Graduate Student Opportunities in Geography at Carleton University

The Geography & Environmental Studies Department is recruiting MA, MSc and PhD students.  Funding is available through the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, faculty research projects and internal and external merit- and need-based scholarships and bursaries. More information and the listing of our faculty and their areas of research.

Patricia Ballamingie

• Food sovereignty; agro-ecology; food policy governance
• Environmental conflict and deliberative democratic engagement
• Community economy, social economy, and collaborative consumption
• Deep adaptation to climate change

Emilie Cameron

• Resource extraction and economies
• Environmental impact assessment
• Critical northern geographies

Funded MA position, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University 

Up to two funded MA positions are available for incoming domestic students interested in working with Dr. Emilie Cameron in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. 

Student research will focus on resource extraction, Indigenous rights, and environmental impact assessment in Northern Canada. Students will produce research for First Nations and Inuit partner organizations; gain experience in data analysis, report writing, and community and academic presentations; and develop knowledge about impact assessment, resource extraction, comprehensive land claims, settler colonialism, and northern Indigenous self-determination. 

Application deadline: February 1. Review of applications will continue until the positions are filled. 

Qualifications: 

• Undergraduate degree completed by August 2026. Background in Human Geography and Environmental Studies (or related disciplines) is ideal, but students with experience in Physical Geography, Geomatics, and Biology are also encouraged to apply; 

• Strong GPA 

• Strong written and oral communication skills 

Inquiries welcome. Please contact emilie.cameron@carleton.ca for further details.

John Chételat

• Ecotoxicology of metals (mercury, lead) and other elements (arsenic)
• Metal bioaccumulation in wildlife
• Transfer of metals in food webs
• Arctic limnology
• Environmental applications of stable isotopes

Stephan Gruber

Quantifying past and future permafrost thaw with simulation, field observation and laboratory experiments; communicating research results so they can inform adaptation decisions. Focus areas and collaborations exist across mountain and polar regions in Canada and abroad.

Research assistantships are often available for new MSc and PhD students as well as postdoctoral fellows. Good writing skills and experience in data analysis and programming (e.g., Python, R) are important.

• simulation-based climate services for permafrost environments
• measuring ice and water content in frozen soil with dielectric methods
• quantifying confidence in simulations of permafrost change
• interpreting ground temperature and subsidence for permafrost monitoring
• permafrost and mass movements in steep mountains

Karen Hébert

• Analyzing Alaskan resource politics
• A recent ethnographic research project tracked the efforts of activists, scientists, government officials, and rural residents to address concerns over controversial resource development proposals in two different regions of rural, coastal Alaska
• The mobilizations involved protests over mining, logging, and fisheries regulations, organized around protecting an environment “at risk.”
• MA students are invited to conduct research on key project themes using the 150 semi-structured interviews and oral histories amassed during this project
• Follow-up research trips to Alaska are also possible

David Hugill

• The relationship between settler colonialism and cities
• Urban forms of inequality and/or inequity
• The politics of the corporate sharing economy
• The urban geography of lobbying in Canada’s capital city

Elyn Humphreys

• Changing northern land-atmosphere interactions
• Research assistantships are available for new MSc and PhD interested in studying the impacts of weather variability and disturbances on carbon dioxide, methane and energy fluxes in Arctic tundra and northern peatland ecosystems
• Experience programming (e.g. Matlab, R, etc) and with micrometeorological techniques (e.g. eddy covariance) or the interest in learning these skills is required

Pablo Mendez

• Linkages between affordable housing and sustainable transportation
• Low-carbon transitions and urban design
• Migration and settlement in Canadian cities
• Applied GIS in urban and regional contexts
• Big data approaches to understanding urban issues

Scott Mitchell

Links between spatio-temporal heterogeneity and environmental processes, especially in agricultural landscapes.  Specific examples:

• Impacts of heterogeneity of crop production land on biodiversity (Farmland Project)
• Spatially-explicit impacts of changing extreme weather on risks in agricultural production
• Measurement and modelling of spatio-temporal patterns of native grassland primary productivity

Sheryl-Ann Simpson

• Migration
• Place and citizenship
• Environmental justice
• Health and well-being
• Spatial analysis (participatory, quantitative, qualitative, interpretive)

Vivian Nguyen

Bridging the knowledge-action gap: knowledge brokering, exchange, and mobilization

• Bridging community knowledge, western science and policy
• Investigating human dimensions of natural resource management
• Evaluating research impacts in conservation and natural resource management
• Exploring best practices for evidence-informed practices and community-driven research
• Understanding social-ecological systems

Murray Richardson

Cold region hydrology and water-quality research (funded opportunities)

• Snow distribution measurement and modelling, including satellite and UAV-based remote sensing (MSc)
• Simulating climate change impacts on surface water hydrology of the Niaqunguk Watershed, Iqaluit, NU (PhD)
• Watershed cumulative effects assessment and northern land-use change (MSc or PhD)

Jennifer Ridgley

• Migration, citizenship, and migrant justice movements
• Urban geographies of policing, law, and law enforcement
• Urban development and displacement

Dipto Sarkar

• Human-wildlife interaction
• Human dimensions of biodiversity conservatiom
• Various aspects of OpenStreetMap

Skills needed

• Advanced Geospatial and Geostatistical Analysis using R and Python
• Programming skills in Python
• Ability to spend time in the field in Uganda

Derek Smith

• Investigating land tenure and forest conservation in the Yucatan region of Mexico
• Mapping indigenous landscapes in southern Belize
• Hunting and wildlife dynamics in eastern Ontario
• Investigations of the relationships between people and wildlife in cities

Sophie Tamas

• The (mis)uses of personal narrative in feminist, Indigenous, and psychoanalytic geographic inquiries
• Arts-based approaches to producing knowledge
• Emotional geographies of post-traumatic growth and change
• Emotional Geographies Lab

Julie Tomiak

• Cities and decolonization
• Indigenous resistance and resurgence
• Settler state power and racial capitalism

Jill Wigle

• Urban housing, planning and governance in Latin America or Canada
• Geographies of spatial regulation and informality in Mexico City
• Urban policy and precarity in Latin America or Canada