Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University is a strong, dynamic and innovative Department that prides itself as a consistent provider of high quality scholarly activity, programs and courses. At the undergraduate level we offer nine programs that cover a broad spectrum of Geography. We offer BA and BSc degrees at both the Honours and General levels as well as combined programs. Our newest undergraduate program is the Geography and Geomatics degree. At the graduate level, we offer MA, MES, MSc and PhD degrees in four fields of specialization: Environmental and Resource Management, Earth Surface Processes, Human, and Geomatics. The mission statement of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies stresses its commitment to: continuing to provide a dynamic undergraduate program covering a full range of knowledge, techniques and applications in geography and environmental studies; providing an array of stimulating undergraduate courses as a service to students from other disciplines; a graduate program emphasizing independent knowledge generation; faculty members engaged in developing new knowledge, innovative technical and educational approaches, with national and international horizons and fields of activity.

Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) and University of Waterloo (UW) are jointly hosting the Canadian Association of Geographers’ (CAG) 2012 annual conference and meeting, May 28-June 2, 2012. This event is part of the largest academic gathering in Canada—the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences—and also welcomes two partner organizations, the Canadian Cartographic Association and the Association of Canadian University Planning Programs.

This is also a time of celebration for the two universities. The Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at WLU marked its 50th anniversary in 2011-2012, and the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at UW is doing the same in 2012-2013.

We have chosen “toward integration” as the theme for this year’s annual meeting and conference—integration across disciplines, between physical and human geographers, and amid different perspectives. The collaboration of two host universities is the starting point, but we challenge all geographers to think about the confines of our own work, and work across boundaries that divide in order to learn from one another.

We look forward to seeing you in Waterloo, a Region and City where rural meets urban, manufacturing meets the new economy, and tradition supports innovation. We are planning a range of field trips to allow you to get to know our region, and to give you an opportunity to integrate what you learn in academic sessions with what you see in the world around us.