Dr Michael Simpson
Senior Lecturer
Research areas
Michael Simpson holds a PhD in Geography from the University of British Columbia. His research lies in the subfields of political ecology and urban geography, with a focus on the geographies of settler colonialism and racial capitalism.
Dr. Simpson is a national best-selling and award winning author. He is co-author with Rueben George of It Stops Here: Standing up for our lands, our waters, and our people (Penguin Random House), which won a Sunshine Coast Book Award, was shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award and the Geogre Ryga Award, and longlisted for the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award.
His scholarly publications have also won the Early Career Researcher Award from the journal Political Geography, the Early Career Researcher Award from the journal Urban Geography, and the Professional Geographer Award from the American Association of Geographers' Energy & Environment Specialty Group.
His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Progress in Human Geography, Environment and Planning D, Environment and Planning E, Geoforum, Political Geography, Antipode, Urban Geography, and Dialogues in Human Geography, among others.
His second book, Terminal City: Infrastructures of Racial Colonial Capitalism in Vancouver (Univesity of Minnesota Press) is forthcoming in 2026.
PhD supervision
- Joshua Hazelbower
Selected publications
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Open access
Between now and future sovereignty: indigenous forestry in the conjecture
Simpson, M., Atleo, C. & Brown, B., 25 Nov 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Antipode. Early View, 24 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Building decolonial climate justice movements: four tensions
Simpson, M. & Pizarro Choy, A., 1 Jul 2024, In: Dialogues in Human Geography. 14, 2, p. 269-272 4 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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On structures and events
Hugill, D. & Simpson, M., 1 Feb 2023, In: Urban Geography. 44, 2, p. 278-280 3 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
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Open access
Smart oceans governance: reconfiguring capitalist, colonial, and environmental relations
Ritts, M. & Simpson, M., 1 Jun 2023, In: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 48, 2, p. 365-379 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
The settler colonial city in three movements
Simpson, M. & Hugill, D. W., 1 Dec 2022, In: Progress in Human Geography. 46, 6, p. 1311-1330 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
The vulnerability of tropical peatlands to oil and gas exploration and extraction
Lawson, I. T., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Andueza, L., Cole, L. E. S., Dargie, G., Davies, A., Laurie, N., Okafor-Yarwood, I., Roucoux, K. & Simpson, M., 1 Dec 2022, In: Progress in Environmental Geography. 1, 1-4, p. 84-114 31 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
What makes local energy projects acceptable? Probing the connection between ownership structures and community acceptance
Hogan, J., Warren, C. R., Simpson, M. & McCauley, D., 1 Dec 2022, In: Energy Policy. 171, 13 p., 113257.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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For a prefigurative pandemic politics: disrupting the racial colonial quarantine
Simpson, M., 1 Jan 2021, In: Political Geography. 84, 3 p., 102274.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
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Reconciling violence: policing the politics of recognition
Simpson, M. & Le Billon, P., 1 Feb 2021, In: Geoforum. 119, p. 111-121 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Fossil urbanism: fossil fuel flows, settler colonial circulations, and the production of carbon cities
Simpson, M., 13 Nov 2020, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Urban Geography. Latest ArticlesResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review