Geography

This module examines the perceived crises associated with a rapid increase in population and its coincidence with forces resulting in global, regional and local damage to the physical environment.

This module provides an overview of natural resources at the global level and introduces key concepts about social and economic change in different world regional settings.

This module examines how space and place interact with social, cultural and economic processes. For example, it considers how different social groups define themselves geographically in terms of racial and class segregation, gated communities and 'gang-land' territories; and it looks at how firms decide where to locate and why some parts of the world are more affluent than others.

This module covers key concepts used in geomorphology and hydrology, focusing on rivers, slopes and glaciers and the processes acting to create different landscapes. It also includes a residential field trip to the Scottish Highlands.

This course provides you with relevant knowledge and skills to design a rigorous research project in human geography and to give you experience in using different methods in the field.  The topics covered by the course include:

• Getting started: how to design a research project;
• Questionnaire surveys: how to design questionnaire surveys, different ways of using questionnaires, coding and analysis of questionnaire data;
• In-depth interviewing: how to design an interview schedule, practice in doing interviews, and how to code and analyse interview transcripts;
• Ethnographic methods covering use of  participant observation and research diaries

This module provides you with relevant experiences to undertake a physical geography research project, as well as equipping you with skills relevant to professional life after university.  Fundamental to the module is a mixture of experimental design, targeted fieldwork, laboratory analysis and report writing and includes:

• Getting started: background and desk-top based research;
• Characterising environments (mapping and sediment logs);
• Catchment water quality characterisation (field and laboratory);
• Topographic survey and mapping using GIS tools;
• Sedimentological analysis of beach/dune systems

This course forms part of the compulsory courses in Level 3 and involves students in a week's residential field course in the Alicante region of Spain. Central to this course is learning about a distinctive region and the focus on student-led research projects. Issues covered include:

• What are the physical, environmental and human processes which shape the contemporary landscapes of the Alicante region?
• Are current demands on resources from tourism, urbanisation and migration sustainable economically, environmentally, politically or socially?
• How can demands be managed in sustainable ways?
• What are the challenges of conducting field research in an unfamiliar environment?

This module explores the geographies of health and health care, examining questions such as:

• What are the spatial variations in levels of health?
• What role do the environment and place play in promoting health?
• What are the inequalities in access to health care, between developing and developed countries, and within developed countries?
• How are new approaches to health (genetics, complementary medicine) changing the geographies of health?

This course examines both historical and contemporary approaches to issues of health and welfare from a social geographical perspective. It examines the development of 'medical geography' and changing government roles in the delivery of welfare services.

This course examines issues of catchment sediment supply including soil erosion, sediment budgets, erosion control and management and sediment fingerprinting. It also looks at transport and sediment storage including sediment transport in rivers, global sediment loads, sediment geochemistry and integrated catchment management.

This involves students choosing a geographical topic and then carrying out the research, analysis and writing up of their study in the form of a 10,000 word report. All dissertation students receive one-to-one supervision from a member of staff.

An introductory lecture on the module is followed by a choice of three student-led reading-based seminars on a range of topics from which students write one reflective essay. Students then develop their review essay as an independent study with individual staff supervision to produce a 5000 word essay.

This module is focused on how the lands, waters and forests of the American West were identified, documented and exploited from c. 1850 onwards.  In seeking to understand this narrative, it addresses key questions about nature, society and landscape:

• How was the American West explored and settled from the mid 19th century?
• Following settlement, how were the lands, waters and forests of the American West identified, documented and exploited?
• Why has a landscape of such apparent abundance become one of scarcity and why has the concept of wilderness become increasingly problematic?

This module also includes a field course to California to explore these wilderness landscapes in the field.

This module explores the ice-covered regions of the world, analysing how glaciers form, how they tell us about climate change, and how their motion leaves an indelible footprint on the landscape. Field and practical work are integral parts of the course. These are just some of the questions that we address:

• What is the effect of global warming on alpine glaciers?
• How stable is the Antarctic ice sheet?
• What techniques are used to monitor changes to glaciers?
• How can glacial landforms tell us about past climates?

This course explores the field of political geography at the international, national and local scales to explore such questions as:

• How have economic globalisation and technological change altered the role of nation-states in global politics today?
• What are the political geographies of the post-Cold War world and the 'war on terror'?
• How do different forms of political protest and resistance make use of local, national and international spatial tactics in their protests and campaigns?
• What are the geographies of political citizenship?