Geography BSc (Hons)

Compulsory

• Biosphere and Ecology

  This module aims to give students an understanding of the natural events that damage environments and communities, including the evolution of multicellular life, ecosystems, ecosystem relationships, and biohazards (diseases and infestations).

• Earth System Science

  This module aims to give an understanding of physical processes that underpin the Earth system, including fundamentals (e.g. matter, motion, energy, gravity, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, atmosphere (composition, weather, climate), hydrosphere (hydrological cycle, oceans, rivers, freshwater, groundwater), lithosphere, cryosphere, and gaia theory.

• SC1xxA - Fundamentals of the Social Sciences
• Introduction Geographical Research and Fieldwork

  This module introduces students to the nature of geographical research and some of the ways of collecting and analysing geographical data. Through both local and multi-day residential fieldwork, the module provides opportunities for experiential learning and an introduction to a variety of types of fieldwork, in both familiar and unfamiliar environments.   

• Living with Environmental Change

  Through specific case studies, this module provides a holistic, integrated approach to understanding reciprocal relationships between societies and environments, drawing on both social and natural science expertise. It enables students to better understand the ways in which environmental change impacts on society at multiple scales, and the possibilities for societies to respond.  

• Space, Place and Society

  This module aims to familiarise you with key ideas and fundamental concepts in human geography. In particular, it will focus on reciprocal relationships between space, place, and society and the significance of these concepts within diverse areas of human geography. 

Compulsory

• Climate Change

  This module aims to give students an understanding of the evidence for, and mechanisms behind, climate changes.

• Geography: A Controversial Discipline

  This module will introduce students to the history and philosophy of geography through a critical, decolonial lens. Students will explore the social, cultural, economic and political context of past and present knowledge production, and the people and forms of knowledge excluded from this. 

• Geographical Research Methods and GIS

  This module will expand students’ understanding of research methods used in both physical and human geography. It is intended to prepare students to plan and undertake research for their dissertations. 

Optional

• Climate Politics

  This module aims to enable students to attain a comprehensive understanding of key concepts and theories in the politics and political economy of climate change. It will provide students with resources to assist them in making informed judgments on a range of questions and debates.  

• Colonialism, Migration and Global Racism

  This module explores the concept, meaning and practices of ‘race’, ethnicity, racialization, and global racisms. It identifies how ‘race’ and racism have evolved over time, and in different contexts - both nationally in the contemporary UK as well as in other parts of the world. 

• GY200F Dynamic Earth (field-based)
• Ecosystem Stressors

  This module aims to provide students with an understanding of pressure on Earth’s ecological systems alongside the observed and predicted impacts.

• SA2xxC - Middle East: Societies, Religion and Politics
• SA5639 - Migration, Citizenship and Identity

  This module introduces students to a range of key concepts and theories in the anthropology of ethnicity, culture, nationhood and identity. These classical anthropological themes will be examined through the lens of high-profile contemporary social issues, including migration, citizenship, transnationalism and globalisation, xenophobia and deportation. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from settings across the world, we will explore how categories of identity and belonging are constructed, deployed and contested, and the ways in which they are embedded in broader social, political, legal and economic contexts.

• SA5641 - South Asia: Cultures, Societies and Development

  This module examines the region of South Asia, assessing whether the geographical region can usefully be considered as a cultural area, and going on to examine the key issues for the different parts of the region. The module covers topics including colonial histories, caste and class, gender, kinship, globalisation, and South Asian diasporas. It draws, in particular, on the disciplines of anthropology and history and on the field of development studies.

• Sustainable Development and Political Ecology

  Students will engage critically with principles and practices of sustainable development and learn to understand environmental questions through a lens of political ecology. The module will provide opportunities for students to develop their own of attitudes and values in relation to the environment.  

• Urban Regeneration and Inequalities (field -based) or Dynamic Earth (field-based)

  You are introduced to issues of urban regeneration and their impacts in relation to urban inequalities, and apply this understanding in relation initially to London and subsequently to a European city in which they undertake a field visit. 

• Geomorphological and Earth Hazards

  Students will develop their understanding of a range of geomorphological features and hazards at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. On completion of the module, they will have a sound appreciation of how term geological processes are reflected in a range of landforms from continents to particles. They will be able to apply appropriate techniques robustly to gather evidence and to express their ideas systematically and effectively.

Compulsory

• SC3xxB - Dissertation
• Leadership for Change

  This module aims to develop the leadership and influence skills that will help you to promote forms of positive change within society and the environment (either individually or collectively). Through engagement with a project in the local community, you'll engage in personal and professional development activities that will enhance your employability.  

Optional

• Applied Conservation and Ecology

  This module will give students an understanding of applied ecological and biogeographical principles and how these inform conservation practices. This module will also allow students to undertake a series of field investigations to address conservation questions during a field course.

• SO3xxA - Cities, Culture and Social Change
• GY3xxB - Climate Justice in a Changing World
• Environment and Sustainability

  The aim of this module is to look at environment and sustainability from a multipronged perspective. The module will help students develop a nuanced understanding about managing our natural resources. Both top down and bottom up approaches to manage nature will be explored. 

• SA5638 - Global Development: Critical Perspectives

  To acquire a theoretical and historical overview of the changing relationship between the critical social sciences and global development, to understand the multiple ways in which social science research can enhance our understanding of contemporary policies and practices in global development and to critically evaluate, from a social science perspective, various theoretical approaches to global development.

• Global Migration

  Equips students with an understanding of the key concepts in global migration including the causes and consequences of migration, national and international responses to migration and the diversity of migrant flows within a global context, using cases from both Global North and Global South contexts.

• Lawyers, Guns and Money: Making the Modern World-System
• SC3600 - Making the Social

  An introduction to core concepts in social theory. The emphasis is on concepts through which students can relate to the worlds they inhabit and the lives they live, connecting these to a broad canvas: the diversity of social existence and the sweep of human history. The focus is on basic building blocks of social existence.

• PP3631 - Marx and the Critique of Political Economy

  This module involves reading several key works by Marx, culminating in several weeks on Das Kapital

• GY3xxA - Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
• Nature-Based Climate Solutions

  This module provides students with an understanding of the methods used to reduce climate changes.

• PP3xxC - Political Economy of the Changing World Order

  The module introduces students to political economy, in particular international political economy (IPE), and to geopolitics. It explores the evolution of world orders, with a focus on the current period. It examines relationships between economic forces and state strategies (economic and geopolitical) on the international stage. It will familiarise students with key concepts and topics in IPE.