UBC PhD

today henry said that UBC is the top geog department in his opinion. so i went and check out their phd program. one of the asst profs interest me with her work in the cultural politics of nature conservation latin america. suddenly it inspired me to do a cross comparison between latin america and SEA experience in conservation - looking at cultural differences and different cultural experiences. differential experiences of the global south. hmmm unfortunately i am hesitant about working with assistant professors. i do want to do something that breaches latin america and southeast asia. i'm quite keen on working on a regional perspective of environmentalism and conservation or a comparison between two areas - east-west studies or a comparison in any of the so-called "global south". why is latin america, africa and southeast asia having such different experiences? or is it so different?

Then i discovered that UBC has an Institute for Resources, the Environment and Sustainability (IRES) but I'm not sure how it works. They have a department of geography of course. But unfortunately I think they have no fellowship funding! *cry* Besides, will W go to Canada?

ChATSEA does have faculty in UBC - Michael Leaf and Terry McGee. McGee is a Prof Emeritus of UBC so I don't think he can supervise and Michael Leaf is from the School of Community and Regional Planning... he's doing more environmental planning in developing urban areas. Tuition is waived for the School of Community and Regional Planning. I'm not sure I want to do a PhD in planning though. Masters maybe... I always wanted to do environmental planning. Planning for change sounds good. It sounds good on a practical level. Something that I can do in Singapore too but academically, I prefer the more airy fairy fluffy things. Oops. Then how?

On the other hand, there is some other very exciting PhD that UBC offers:

Integrated Studies in Land & Food Systems - this will be a continuation of what i'm doing now which i'm actually quite keen on. i dunno come out do what though... FAO?

Resource Management and Environmental Studies (PhD) - this is under the IRES thingy that I mentioned earlier. So I guess it is an option.

And of course, geography. Hmmm....