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Teaching Assistants GEOG for Winter 2027

Hiring Unit:
Department of Geography

Course Title and Course Number:

GEOG 217 Cities in the Modern World

GEOG 272 Earth's Changing Surface

GEOG 303 Health Geography
GEOG 305 Soils and Environment

GEOG 311 Economic Geography

GEOG 314 Geospatial Analysis

GEOG 321 Climatic Environments

GEOG 325 New Master-Planned Cities

GEOG 351 Quantitative Methods
GEOG 360 Analyzing Sustainability
GEOG 401 Socio-Environmental Systems: Theory and Simulation
GEOG 406 Geodatabases, ML and GeoAI

GEOG 407 Issues in Geography
GEOG 414 Advanced Geospatial Analysis
GEOG 418 Geographies of Race
GEOG 420 Memory, place, and power
GEOG 494 Urban Field Studies
ESYS 104 The Earth System

Estimated number of positions :

30

Total number of hours per term :

90h, 80h, 45h

Hourly Salary:

According to the collective agreement

Position Start Date:

2027-01-04

Position End Date:

2027-04-16

Deadline to Apply:

2026-10-19

Before applying, please note that to work at McGill University

• You must be both authorized to work in Canada and willing to work in the province of Quebec at the campus where the position is based / located.
• Must be registered in a graduate program at McGill University.
• Priority will be given to students enrolled in a graduate program in Geography.

McGill University is committed to equity in employment. McGill University is an English-language university where most teaching and research activities are conducted in the English language, thereby requiring English communication both verbally and in writing.

Use a personal email when creating an account to submit your application. Do not use @mail.mcgill.ca or @mcgill.ca email accounts when you apply.

GEOG 217 Cities in the Modern World

Key Responsibilities

• The bulk of TA hours will be devoted to grading exams (scheduled late-February/early-March and during final exam period), and a 5-page report (due at the end of the semester). TAs should be available on campus during these times. Most questions on these tests will be in short-answer format (1-3 paragraphs), and the instructors will provide detailed answer keys.
• Attendance at lectures and reading the course material are optional for appropriately qualified TAs, but TAs are expected to read the lecture notes and/or readings that provide the basis of the questions they grade. TAs will be expected to help invigilate the midterm exam (evenings ~5:30-8:30PM; and/or during class time). There may be additional miscellaneous duties as well.
• One or more TAs will oversee the urban transect project for the class, possibly leading two sets of conferences in early-February and mid-March. These TAs will grade projects rather than exams.
• All TAs should be available on an ad-hoc basis with 2-day notice and should plan to be on campus until all course material has been fully graded and the final grades submitted (as late as mid-May).
• In the event of remote-delivery, grading may involve longer, take-home essay responses; routine interactions with students via video conferences, email, and/or myCourses; and other tasks arising from the situation.

Qualifications

At a minimum, TAs should have background in foundational work in urban studies and should be comfortable grading written essays. Prior coursework with a strong social-theoretical orientation in urban geography, urban planning, and/or urban studies is essential. TAs lacking appropriate background will be expected to attend lectures and do the readings on their own time.

GEOG 272 Earth's Changing Surface

Key Responsibilities

• Photocopying and exercise preparation, reserves, myCourses input and coordinating exercise on land observation and sketching, introducing videos during class lectures
• Helping students with and grading exercises, office hours
• Grading mid-term and final exam
• Coordinating Q&A session during course

Qualifications

• Background in geomorphology and ideally some geology and/or environment studies, field oriented, good with landscape sketching.
• Knowledge of climate change implications on the physical environment.

GEOG 303 Health Geography

Key Responsibilities

• Marking of assignments and exams in close consultation with instructor
• Hold weekly office hours (2 hrs/week)
• Advise students on assignments through email support
• Offer tutoring as required
• Contribute to course management on myCourses

Qualifications

• Knowledge of Excel spreadsheet software
• Basic understanding of concepts in health geography
• Introductory level statistical knowledge
• Experience marking assignments
• Fluency in English to grade essays
• Effective interpersonal skills
• Knowledge of MyCourses

GEOG 305 Soils and Environment 

Key Responsibilities

• Runs laboratory analysis section where students measure the basic soil parameters like soil moisture, soil texture, soil pH etc. 
• Collates analytical data and presents them to students.
• The laboratory session of the course usually takes up to 12h/week for up to 6 weeks. 

Qualifications

• Must be well-organized, have experience in soil biogeochemistry and be prepared to “fix” broken lab equipment.

GEOG 311 Economic Geography

Key Responsibilities

• Marking (assignments and tests)
• Entering and management of marks in Excel spreadsheet
• Assist with office hours (on occasion) and responding to student emails
• Help managing course materials (some on-line in myCourses) and other miscellaneous tasks

Qualifications

• Preference will be given to someone with a background in economic geography, economics and / or   political economy
• Basic knowledge of mathematical economics is also a plus

GEOG 314 Geospatial Analysis

Key Responsibilities

• Marking of assignments and exams in close consultation with instructor
• Hold weekly office hours
• Attending lab sections
• Advise students on assignments through email support
• Offer tutoring as required
• Contribute to course management on myCourses

Qualifications

• Knowledge of Geographic Information Systems, in particular ESRI’s ArcGIS Pro required
• Basic understanding of concepts in Geographic Information Science (e.g., map projections, etc.)
• Introductory level statistical knowledge
• Experience marking assignments
• Fluency in English to grade essays
• Effective interpersonal skills
• Knowledge of MyCourses

GEOG 321 Climatic Environments

Key Responsibilities

• Marking of assignments and tests
• Regular student consultation regarding course and assignment material (office hours)

Qualifications

• Knowledge of micrometeorology or boundary layer climatology, including previous or current research or course work in this subject area.

GEOG 325 New Master-Planned Cities

Key Responsibilities

• Grading papers and exams
• Administrative work
• Give 1 lecture on an aspect of new cities

Qualifications

• The T.A. should ideally have some background understanding of new master-planned cities, experience with discourse analysis and qualitative methods, and an understanding of urban cultural politics.
• Having taken urban geography and planning courses is an asset.

GEOG 351 Quantitative Methods

Key Responsibilities

• Grading (lab assignments, midterm and final exams)
• Lead a few lab sessions and tutorials during semester;
• Assist in responding to student emails and basic maintenance on myCourses.

Qualifications

• Strong background in basic probability and statistics and multiple regression analysis
• Knowledge of R preferred but not required

GEOG 360 Analyzing Sustainability

Key Responsibilities

• Assist students with four to five assignments in the active learning classroom, Burnside 511, and attend student presentations
• Assist with the preparation/administration of the practical midterm exam
• Grade assignments (which may be in the form of lab reports, paper summaries, etc.) and midterm exam
• Hold office hours as needed (in consultation with the Instructor)
• Assist with responding to student email queries and myCourses discussion posts
• Manage course grade sheet and help post materials on myCourses

Qualifications

• Experience with sustainability analysis. This could include familiarity with: emissions allocations between nations; cost-benefit analysis; trade-off analysis; spatial analysis; reserve design; and environmental management
• Strong quantitative, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Strong familiarity with Microsoft Excel (including use of formulas and functions); familiarity with basic statistical techniques, R programming, or GIS would be helpful
• Strong communication skills and enthusiasm to patiently assist students
• Good organizational skills

NOTE:  This course involves challenging analytical work. Please contact the instructor to discuss the specific analytic approaches that may be used in the class if you have concerns before applying to be a TA.

GEOG 401 Socio-Environmental Systems: Theory and Simulation

Key Responsibilities 

• Assist students with five or six system dynamics modelling exercises (mostly using STELLA Architect) in the active learning classroom, Burnside 511 
• Grade assignments (which may be in the form of lab reports, short essays, case studies, or systems model diagrams) 
• Hold regular office hours as needed (in consultation with the instructor) 
• Occasionally assist with other classroom activities as needed (such as breakout group activities) 
• Assist with responding to student email/myCourses queries regarding assignments 
• Manage course grade sheet; help to organize and post assignment materials on myCourses as needed 

Qualifications 

• Experience with computational modeling packages (e.g. STELLA®, POWERISM®, VENISM®, SIMILIE®, etc.) or other relevant software in a modelling context (e.g., R, MATLAB®, etc.) is preferred  
• Coursework in environmental systems and familiarity with sustainability science concepts 
• Strong quantitative, analytical, and problem-solving skills; familiarity with Microsoft Excel® 
• Strong communication skills and enthusiasm to patiently assist students with (system
  dynamics) modelling exercises 

GEOG 406 Geodatabases, ML and GeoAI

Key Responsibilities

• Support in laboratory parts of the course
• Grade laboratory exercises, final and mid-term exams
• Answer student questions on laboratory exercises

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of PostGreSQL/PostGIS
• Strong knowledge of geospatial analytical methods, incl. random forest, model evaluation and geographically weighted regressions
• Good knowledge of Python and/or R

GEOG 407 Issues in Geography

Key Responsibilities

• Grading assignments and final reports
• Assist students in data curation and analysis
• Possibly give a short lecture based on the expertise of the T.A.

Qualifications

• The T.A. must have some knowledge of qualitative field methods
• Having taken urban geography and planning courses is an asset. 

GEOG 414 Advanced Geospatial Analysis

Key Responsibilities

• Set up and administer previously created GIS labs/tutorials during lab sessions.
• Assist students with development of final project ideas (including data access and downloading, and manipulation).
• Grade the labs when completed.
• Grade the final project.

Qualifications

• Requires knowledge of ESRI ArcGIS software, and some amount of SQL/GIS customization/programming knowledge.
• Must have taken the following courses (or their equivalents):
  • GEOG 201: Intro to GIS
  • GEOG 306: Raster GIS
  • GEOG 307: Socio-economic Applications of GIS
  • GEOG 506: Seminar GeoInformation Science

GEOG 418 Geographies of Race

Key Responsibilities

The teaching assistant will support a course on the contemporary and historical production of race/racism within Europe and North America. Primary duties include grading assignments, supporting student writing, and holding scheduled meetings with students.  

Qualifications

The teaching assistant should have knowledge of basic college writing and knowledge of concepts within the fields of human geography and race studies (e.g., racial capitalism and plantation logic).  

GEOG 420 Memory, place, and power

Key Responsibilities

• The principal responsibility will be grading of assignments with deadlines any point between mid-February through the end of the final examination period. The instructors will provide a detailed answer key.
• The position may include miscellaneous other duties such as exam invigilation
• In the event of remote-delivery, grading may involve longer, take-home essay responses; routine interactions with students via video conferences, email, and/or myCourses; and other tasks arising from the situation.

Qualifications

• TAs should be familiar with texts in political geography/political science on symbolic politics. Prior coursework in social and/or political theory is essential. TAs lacking appropriate background will be expected to attend lectures and do the readings on their own time.
• TAs should be comfortable grading written essays.
• The TA should be available on campus from mid-February until the final grade submission deadline in early May.

 
GEOG 494 Urban Field Studies

Key Responsibilities

• Hold office hours (to be determined by student demand)
• Attend some classes and give some lectures/tutorials
• Respond to student emails
• Be prepared to help students with concerns related to qualitative and quantitative fieldwork methods and analysis
• Have a general knowledge of recent debates regarding urban change in Montreal
• Posting and maintenance of material on MyCourses as needed

Qualifications

• Skills in survey design and field research methodologies (both qualitative and quantitative)
• Good communication skills
• Good organizational and problem-solving skills

ESYS 104 The Earth System

Key Responsibilities

Under the general supervision of course instructor. Prepares course material (including laboratory preparation if applicable). Performs grading and maintains grading records. Assists with tutoring. Performs related duties.

Qualifications

B.Sc. degree. Enrollment in Earth & Planetary Sciences, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, or Geography M.Sc. or Ph.D. graduate program. Knowledge of the course subject and material. Must be organized and approachable. Ability to deal effectively with diverse range of people. English, spoken and written. Ability to read French desirable.

McGill University is committed to equity and diversity within its community and values academic rigour and excellence. We welcome and encourage applications from racialized persons/visible minorities, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and persons of minority sexual orientations and gender identities, as well as from all qualified candidates with the skills and knowledge to engage productively with diverse communities.

At McGill, research that reflects diverse intellectual traditions, methodologies, and modes of dissemination and translation is valued and encouraged. Candidates are invited to demonstrate their research impact both within and across academic disciplines and in other sectors, such as government, communities, or industry.

McGill further recognizes and fairly considers the impact of leaves (e.g., family care or health-related) that may contribute to career interruptions or slowdowns. Candidates are encouraged to signal any leave that affected productivity, or that may have had an effect on their career path. This information will be considered to ensure the equitable assessment of the candidate’s record.

McGill implements an employment equity program and encourages members of designated equity groups to self-identify. It further seeks to ensure the equitable treatment and full inclusion of persons with disabilities by striving for the implementation of universal design principles transversally, across all facets of the University community, and through accommodation policies and procedures. Persons with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations for any part of the application process may contact, in confidence, [email protected].

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.