About FIGS
FIGS brings together CAG members interested in feminist, intersectional, and equity-focused geographies.
The group supports student participation, newsletter contributions, conference sessions, awards, lectures, and other community activities.
Use the sections on this page to access FIGS newsletters, reports, student awards, the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture Series, and archival materials from FIGS and CWAG.
Welcome to FIGS
The Feminist Intersectional Solidarity Group supports conversations, research, mentorship, and community-building around feminist and intersectional geographies within the Canadian Association of Geographers.
Through newsletters, awards, lectures, conference activities, archives, and student engagement, FIGS provides space for members to connect around issues of gender, equity, access, and social justice in geography.
Get Involved
FIGS welcomes participation from students, faculty, researchers, practitioners, and community members whose work or interests connect with feminist, intersectional, and equity-focused geographies.
Members are encouraged to contribute news, updates, resources, announcements, and reflections for future FIGS newsletters.
FIGS Zine
The FIGS Zine provides a space for creative contributions, reflections, resources, and community updates from members of the Feminist Intersectional Solidarity Group.
Use this section to access the latest FIGS Zine and related materials.
The “Second Dose, A Feminist Call For Anything” and our second Zine is now available! Download the PDF or view our interactive flip book version.
In the spring of 2020, FIGS put out a “call for anything” in response to continued academic and other pressures to remain productive in the face of a global pandemic. Quaranzine is a feminist response to that pressure, and a site for solidarity in these difficult times. We hope you enjoy it!
FIGS Newsletters
The FIGS newsletter shares updates, announcements, resources, member news, and contributions from the FIGS community.
Next Newsletter Seeking Submissions
The FIGS newsletter is published at least twice a year. Members are invited to send news, contributions, links, resources, congratulations, heartwarming stories, and other items that may be relevant to the FIGS community.
Please send submissions to figscag@gmail.com with the subject line “Newsletter.”
Contributions are welcome in both French and English.
Newsletter Archive
Newsletter archives will be added soon!
FIGS Student Paper Award
The FIGS Student Paper Award recognizes student work that contributes to feminist, intersectional, and equity-focused conversations within geography.
FIGS Student Paper Award Winners
2024 Wiley Sharp, University of Toronto
2024 Mikayla Lochbihler, Carleton University
2023 Emma Melis, McGill University
2023 Wajiha Mehdi, University of British Columbia
2022 Jessica Froese, University of Northern British Columbia
2022 Sophie Rowson, York University
2021 Shruti Raji Kalyanaraman, York University
2021 Lila Mansour, University of Northern British Columbia
2020 Bryanne Lamoureux, University of Winnipeg
2019 Julie Han, Simon Fraser University
2019 Hanieh Haji Molana, Kent State University
2019 Alex Perna, Brock University
Canadian Women and Geography Study Group Student Paper Award
2015 Christine Alic, Brock University
2013 Reiko Obokata, University of Ottawa
2012 Laurence Simard-Gagnon, Université Laval, Québec
The Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Fund
The Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Fund was established in memory of Suzanne Mackenzie, a much-loved member of the geographic community in Canada and internationally. Suzanne is remembered for her courage, generosity, humour, deep sense of justice, commitment to feminism, and care for friends, family, students, and colleagues.
Every second year, the Fund supports the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture and Reception, held during the CAG Annual Meeting. The lecture honours Suzanne’s contributions to feminist geography by inviting a speaker whose work reflects her interests, passions, and lasting influence within the discipline.
The Fund also helps cover reception costs and partial travel expenses for the invited speaker, where required.
To make a donation to the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Fund, please visit our Charitable Funds page.
Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture Series
Every second year, the Feminist Intersectional Solidarity Group is honoured to sponsor the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture.
The lecture recognizes Suzanne Mackenzie’s contributions to feminist geography and provides an opportunity to highlight important scholarship connected to gender, equity, social justice, and geographic thought.
Dr. Sharlene Mollet (2023)
Dr. Sharlene Mollett is a professor in the Department of Human Geography and Global Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She delivered the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture, “Racial Geographies of Land and Domestic Service in Panama,” at the CAG Annual Meeting in Montréal in 2023.
Dr. Beverly Mullings (2021)
Dr. Beverley Mullings is a professor in Geography and Planning and Women’s Studies at Queen’s University. She delivered the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture, “Beyond the Dark Side of Resilience,” during the online CAG Annual Meeting hosted by UNBC in 2021.
Dr. Margo Greenwood and Ms. Linda Sioux (2018)
Dr. Margo Greenwood and Ms. Linda Sioux were the 2018 Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture nominees. Their lecture was delivered in Québec City and continued the series’ focus on feminist, intersectional, and justice-oriented geographic scholarship.
Dr. Sarah de Leeuw (2016)
Dr. Sarah de Leeuw is an associate professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. She delivered the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture in 2016 at Dalhousie University, sharing work connected to feminist geography, colonial relations, and critical place-based scholarship.
Dr. Linda Peake (2014)
Dr. Linda Peake is a professor at York University in the Department of Social Science. She delivered the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture, “Rethinking Feminist Urbanism into Geography,” at Brock University in 2014.
Dr. Audrey Kobayashi (2012)
Dr. Audrey Kobayashi is a professor of Geography at Queen’s University. She delivered the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture, “Coming to the Intersection: Impossible Conversations on Race and Gender along the Road,” at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2012.
Dr. Catherine Nolin
Dr. Linda Peake is a professor at York University in the Department of Social Science. She delivered the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture, “Rethinking Feminist Urbanism into Geography,” at Brock University in 2014.
Previous Lectures
2008
Dr. Damaris Rose
Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
Refractions and recombinations of the ‘economic’ and the ‘social’: A personalized reflection on challenges by—and to—feminist urban geographies
delivered at Université Laval
2006
Dr. Maureen Reed
University of Saskatchewan
Seeking red herrings in the wood: Tending the shared spaces of environmental and feminist geographies
delivered at Lakehead University
2004
Dr. Isabel Dyck
University of British Columbia, at the time
Feminist geography, the ‘everyday’, and local–global relations: Hidden spaces of place-making
delivered at Moncton, NB
2002
Dr. Evelyn Peters
University of Saskatchewan
Conceptually unclad: Feminist geography and Aboriginal peoples
delivered at the University of Toronto
2000
Dr. Jennifer Hyndman
Simon Fraser University, at the time
Towards a feminist geopolitics
delivered at Brock University
Who is Suzanne Mackenzie?
Suzanne Mackenzie was a much beloved member of the geographical community, both in Canada and around the world. A pioneer in feminist urban geography, she contributed actively to discussions and research about women and geography and continues to be remembered for her courage, her commitment to feminism, her deep sense of caring for friends, family and students, her sense of justice and her irrepressible humour. These characteristics were all bound up in a generous spirit. She died on October 24, 1998 in her home in Nelson, B.C., at the age of 48. (Please see "Tributes to Suzanne Mackenzie", Gender, Place and Culture 6 (4), 2009: 401–415; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713668837.)
Sample of Suzanne's early Women & Environments teaching material, McGill University, 1980 (pdf)
From the FIGS/CWAG archives
The Status of Women in Geography by Suzanne Mackenzie, 1989.
Provided by Damaris Rose
Women and The Reproduction of Labour Power in The Industrial City by Suzanne Mackenzie, 1980 – in 2 parts
Description of the Working paper
Part 1 Part 2
Become Part of the FIGS Community
Interested in feminist, intersectional, and equity-focused geographies? FIGS welcomes CAG members who want to connect, contribute, and take part in conversations, initiatives, newsletters, awards, lectures, and events that support this work within the discipline.
Become a CAG member to get involved with FIGS, contribute to future newsletters, participate in study group activities, and connect with others working across feminist and intersectional geographies.
