Name
Health geography in Canada in 2025: where have we been and where are we headed next?
Date & Time
Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 3:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Description
Health/medical geographies have traditionally represented one of the most active sub-disciplines amongst Canadian geographers, and Canadian health/medical geographers have likewise been well recognized as active and trailblazing contributors amongst peers in the sub-discipline internationally. Now sixteen years after Luginaah’s original reflection on the state of the sub-discipline in Canada (see Luginaah 2009, Canadian Geographies), this paper updates on the directions of Canadian health geography scholars in the past decade and asks, where have we been and where are we headed next? Data was harvested from three sources: a) Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meeting abstracts (all abstracts from Geographies of Health and Health Care Study group sponsored sessions and all abstracts with a focus on health); b) Canadian Geographies publications with a focus on health; c) Health & Place publications, with affiliation country as Canada. Findings demonstrate a robust and lively body of scholarship, with contributions from a wide range of methodologies, topical areas, and theoretical perspectives. While scholars within the annual conference and the Canadian Geographies publication reflect a tighter circle of scholarship, the wide contributions of Canadian scholars to Health & Place suggest spatial and place based analysis have been engaged with beyond the disciplinary borders. Sub-disciplinary scholars have also taken up greater work concerned with the concept wellbeing and its relationship to health. Implications for a post 2025 sub-discipline are discussed.
Location Name
Mackenzie (ME) 3356
Session Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract ID
327
Speaker Name
Jenna Dixon
Speaker Organization
UBC
Session Name
CS119-B Geographies of Health and Health Care