Department of Geography

This degree is perfect for you if you wish to specialise purely in human geography and have interests in other social science subjects such as economics, economic and social history, politics or sociology. There is a strong emphasis on field work – Recent destinations include New York, Brussels, Poland and Dublin and we have just started a new field trip to Kenya. Our research strengths in human geography are in economic and political, cultural, and development geographies. You will be able to take the year abroad scheme with this degree programme.

I have been impressed by the efforts taken by staff to constantly appraise and improve on students' learning experiences.
External Examiner, Professor David Thomas, Geography, University of Oxford

Year 1

The first year is similar to the BA Geography degree and will lay the foundations of a degree in human geography. You will acquire a broad grounding in the main areas of human geography and gain foundation skills in IT, critical analysis, reviewing literature, debate and communication. You will undertake fieldwork in your first year (fairly unique amongst British universities) which will allow you to gain practical skills. In addition you will take modules (40 credits) in other social science subjects. This allows you to integrate your human geography into the other social sciences. A brief description of the first year modules is provided.

• GY1011/GY1012 Human Worlds of Difference – in semester 1 you will explore global differences in population growth and ageing, urban and rural change in several regions of the world. In semester 2 you will be introduced to various aspects of economic geography (globalization, poverty, the 'national' economy) and will investigate the issue of development in sub-Saharan Africa.
• GY1018/GY1037 Environment, Nature and Society – this module addresses human-environment relations. It explores what constitutes a natural resource and natural resource functions and explores the factors influencing resource use and availability. You will explore the degradation of natural resources and question how environment and nature are valued by society, including the rise of the environmental movement and environmental activism.
• GY1019 Working with Geographical Information/GY1017 Exploring our Digital Planet – in semester 1 you get to grips with methods and techniques of data analysis. In semester 2 you start learning about the up and coming field of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and the use of satellite data (remote sensing).
• GY1027 Skills for Professional Geographers – employers require graduates with skills and geographers are lucky to have lots of them. We start training you early so that you have three years to perfect them. Your confidence as a geographer is developed from the start of your degree.
• GY1028 Fieldwork Skills for Professional Geographers – Thorough a mixture of group work and independent research you will explore multiculturalism in the city of Leicester. In this module you will learn basic skills critical to conducting fieldwork, including how to keep a fieldwork diary and access the necessary resources that are important to your project. You will also develop skills in team work and putting together and giving presentations on your key findings.

Year 2

In year two students take modules which are primarily grounded in human geography, combining compulsory modules with free choice modules which make up ‘pathways’ of specialisation in particular areas. Compulsory modules focus on the central approaches to human geography (Theory and Practice in Human Geography), while Planning Human Geography Research and the Human Geography Fieldcourse prepare students for their final year research project, the fieldwork for which is usually executed over the summer. Students are required to choose one of the human geography oriented fieldcourses, which have recently been to New York, Brussels and Krakow. There are five human geography pathways which students can choose to follow, allowing students to combine modules to suit their interests. Pathways (and modules) include: The Digital Planet (Geographical Information Systems, Geographical Data Analysis, Remote Sensing for Geographers); Globalization (Political and Economic Geographies); Media and Culture (Urban Geographies, Rural Geographies), Development (Rethinking Development Geographies); Environmental Issues and Change (Understanding Environmental Issues).

Year 3

The final year of the degree represents the interface between the Department’s teaching and research, allowing students to use the concepts and general areas of geography covered in year two and apply them critically to current issues within each pathway. Students also submit a dissertation which is an individual research project based on any area of human geography. Following on from Year Two, students can choose to continue to follow pathways through the degree, allowing them to combine complementary modules. Pathways and modules include: The Digital Planet (Contemporary Issues in GI Science, Advances and Applications of Remote Sensing in Geography); Globalization Spatialities of the Contemporary State, Globalization and Urban Transformation); Media and Culture (Rural Cultural Geographies, Geographies of Youth Cultures); Development (Postcolonial Perspectives on Sub-Saharan Africa, Gender, Globalisation and Development), Environmental Issues and Change (Ecological Futures, Global Environmental Change).

We urge you to come and visit us and speak to our dedicated BA admissions tutor. Detailed module descriptions for this degree can be found here.

BA Course Pathways

What is a pathway?
A pathway is a suite of related modules that combine around a common theme. Pathways provide you with a logical and sensible way of combining modules to develop a coherent programme of study. Please note that there is nothing compulsory about the pathways. If you wish, you can ignore the pathway structure and pick and chose modules as that interest you (within normal degree regulations).

What defines a pathway?
There are three elements to the BA Human Geography pathways:

• i) Compulsory modules. All students have to take these modules, irrespective of the pathway they chose to follow.
• ii) Key modules. These are the core modules of the pathway.
• iii) Other module choices. These are the other modules that are available to you. In some pathways, the compulsory modules and key modules will give you the 60 credits you are required to take in each semester. In this case, you will have to choose whether you wish to follow the complete pathway as specified, or replace one or more of the pathway modules with another. In other pathways, the compulsory modules and key modules total less than 60 credits. In this case, you will have to choose other modules to make up the 60 credits (in this scenario, you can still opt to replace recommended key pathway modules with other modules).

Human Geography Pathways
There are five Human Geography Pathways. Globalization, Media and Culture and Development pathways are specialist Human Geography pathways and are only open to BA students. The Digital Planet and the Environmental Issues and Change pathways specialise in Geographical Information Systems/Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Issues respectively. They integrate Human and Physical Geography and as such are open to BA and BSc students.

The interactive table below shows the key modules for the five pathways open to Human Geographers. The compulsory modules are not shown.

• Click to activate table
• Roll the cursor over the pathway titles for a brief description of the different pathways
• Click on the pathway title for further details regarding the pathway structure and pathway recommendations
• Roll the cursor over the module title for a brief description of the module
• Click on the module titles for comprehensive details of the module’s content