Welcome from Program Director, Karen Ferguson

I’m excited to welcome you to Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies Program, a dynamic, diverse program that digs deep into the nature and culture of cities. SFU Urban Studies is committed to an interdisciplinary approach to learning that prepares students for leadership in addressing the complex challenges facing cities today.  Our faculty expertise, diverse student body, and deep engagement with pressing urban issues attract students and researchers locally and from around the world to study and collaborate with us.

Our interdisciplinary approach is showcased through our award-winning faculty and faculty associates, who have a wide array of backgrounds as urbanists. Collectively, we have significant social-science expertise and professional experience in critical areas such as urban housing, sustainability, governance, mobility, Indigenous planning, equity, age-friendly cities, immigration settlement, urban data analytics, urban philosophy and community-engaged research. Our curriculum exposes students both to the cutting edge of urban scholarship in stimulating seminars, and hands-on experience through our Urban Innovation Lab and co-op placement opportunities.

SFU Urban Studies has an excellent track record of graduates assuming a diverse array of high-impact roles as mayors, political strategists, senior planners, non-profit founders and leaders, development professionals and other kinds of changemakers. Our faculty, alumni and students are making a significant impact, especially across our home region of Metro Vancouver, but also across Canada, and increasingly, worldwide.

After almost 20 years of training graduate students for careers as urbanists, this year we are excited to launch SFU’s new undergraduate major in Urban Worlds, extending our interdisciplinary model of urban education to future generations of urbanists, providing them with a multifaceted understanding of the complex and pressing issues facing cities today and in the future, including climate change, the housing crisis, decolonization, migration and mobility. 

Please join us as we forge the urban future!