Graduate students benefit from Osgoode’s vibrant campus community, which includes opportunities for wide-ranging intellectual engagement.
GradForum Workshops
Each year, the graduate program offers a range of professional development workshops to enhance graduate students’ academic knowledge and career development capabilities. Past sessions have offered guidance on topics ranging from SSHRC applications and the Zotero platform to knowledge mobilization and the academic job search process.
Talks and Conferences
Osgoode and York University host an extensive calendar of research talks, seminars, workshops, colloquia and conferences each year. Graduate students are encouraged to participate in these activities in order to deepen their knowledge of current discourse in their field and to build professional connections.
ATLAS
Osgoode is a founding member of the Association of Transnational Law Schools (ATLAS), an alliance of university law schools from around the world. Every year, ATLAS provides leading doctoral students with opportunities to work together to enhance their scholarship and make lasting research connections. Participants engage with peers at partner institutions throughout the year and convene at a summer Agora: an intensive exchange of ideas and perspectives.
ATLAS members include: the University of Antwerp, the Erasmus School of Law (Rotterdam), University College Dublin, the University of Graz, Université de Montréal and Bar-Ilan University (Tel Aviv).
Research Centres
Both Osgoode and York University are home to numerous research centres that bring together leading scholars from around the world. Many of these centres offer opportunities for graduate students to support current research while deepening their expertise and advancing their careers. Some of York’s research centres offer graduate diplomas in their area of specialization. For example, students may complement their LLM or PhD with graduate diplomas in Refugee and Migration Studies; International and Strategic Studies; German and European Studies; or Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Students are typically required to attend a mandatory diploma seminar, take an additional course beyond that required by their graduate degree program, and write their thesis or dissertation on a topic substantially involving the research field of the centre.
Library Services
The Osgoode Hall Law Library, the largest in Canada, has an outstanding collection of print and digital resources on all aspects of the law and legal scholarship. The library is staffed by a team with training in both law and librarianship, and each graduate student is assigned a liaison librarian who helps them access the resources they need. Osgoode LLM and PhD students also have full graduate student access to York University Libraries, whose collection includes over 2,250,000 print volumes, 43,000 digital journal subscriptions and 290,000 digital monographs.
Conference Funding
Osgoode provides funding for graduate students to participate in scholarly conferences and events, including the Association of Transnational Law Schools (ATLAS), Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) and other gatherings focused on legal education and scholarship.
Space for Research and Study
Research-stream graduate students enjoy quiet, comfortable space in the academic wing of the Osgoode building. Students can apply annually to reserve one of 50 dedicated study carrel offices. They can also convene with peers – socially or for academic collaboration – at the Graduate Student Lounge.
The Graduate Law Students Association (GLSA)
The student association of research-stream graduate students, the GLSA hosts events throughout the academic year, including socials and an annual graduate student conference. Students can become involved through an elected role or as a member of one of the numerous committees that contributes to life Osgoode.