BA (Hons) Geography and Sociology

This highly interdisciplinary course provides you with a strong theoretical and practical background in human geography giving you the understanding and professional geographical skills to explore an array of world issues from different perspectives. You will develop problem-solving skills and the ability to research, evaluate and synthesize information from diverse sources. Our staff’s diverse research interests and creative methods reflect modern human geography that can develop your skills to address contemporary societal issues such as climate change, sustainability, health, and migration from political, economic, social, and cultural perspectives. What you learn here will equip you for future employment and for a lifelong appreciation of the world around you.

Year 1

Compulsory Modules:

• Social inequalities in the contemporary world
• Classical Sociology
• Academic Professional and Fieldwork Skills
• Human Geography in a Changing World
• People and the Environment

Optional Modules:

• The Anthropological Imagination
• Investigating Social Issues
• Researching British Society
• Mediated World
• Climate Change: The Scientific and Societal Context
• Nature, Conservation and Society

Year 2

• Contemporary Social Theory
• Research Methods
• Researching People and Place
• Space and Society

Optional Modules:

• Food, Culture, and Society
• Globalization and its Discontents
• Crime, Morality and the Media
• Social Movements
• Producing Sociological Knowledge
• Fieldwork
• Cartography and Geographic Information Science
• Populations, Publics, Policies: Geographical Perspectives in Human Geography

Year 3

Optional Modules:

• Glaciers and Glacial Geomorphology
• Global Environmental Change
• Applied GIS
• Postcolonialism in South Asia
• Animals and Society
• Geography Double Dissertation – ISP
• Geography (Single) Dissertation – ISP
• Water Resources
• Coastal Environments
• Inspirational Landscapes
• Rural Geographies
• Geographies of Health and Illness
• The making of professionals: Education, Health and Social Work
• Visual Pleasures: From Carnival to Disney
• Home: belonging, locality, and material culture
• Sex, Death, Desire: Psychoanalysis in Social Context
• Dissertation – ISP
• Sociology of Parenting and Early Childhood
• Celebrity
• Moving People: Migration, emotion, identity
• Employability Training: Engaging with the Workplace
• Advanced Fieldwork in Geography
• Development Studies

Employability

As a geographer, you’ll develop a wide range of transferable and subject-specific skills that are highly valued by employers and are relevant to a broad range of careers including those in transport and planning and the environmental and retail sectors. They also provide ideal training for postgraduate study and research.

Sociology is a theoretically informed discipline that also teaches skills that are useful in a wide range of careers. It is an evidence-based subject, enabling you to develop skills in problem-solving, utilizing your knowledge, information, and data to inform decision-making. This varied skill set is useful for a wide range of occupations and professions. Our graduates have entered work in fields including social care, the health sector, advertising and marketing, the charity sector, youth services, and local government. Some of our graduates also choose to pursue further academic study.

Recent employers

• Bright Horizons
• Civil Service
• Environmental Agency
• Higher Education Providers
• HMRC
• HMP