Geography - Spatial Justice

Overview

Students will also learn how more equitable forms of spatial, environmental, land, health, social and place-based justice might be realised in the future. Students Geography - Spatial Justice course at Maynooth University will gain training in participatory, action, and mixed research methods and practices appropriate for geographically-informed research, including fieldwork, qualitative and quantitative research methods, cultural mappings, and QGIS. Students will gain experience in working with civil society, community-based, artistic and government partners, and develop their sense of the ethical and practical demands of such collaborative work.

In addition to learning how to understand, document and map forms of discrimination, violence and displacement at different scales, students will learn how citizens and groups challenge historical legacies and existing structural injustices, and seek more equitable alternatives. Working with Maynooth Geographers and their public engagement partners, including groups such as the Maynooth Housing Justice Research Group, the Irish Housing Network, Right to Water, and Dublin Bay North Choice and Equality Network, students will gain insights into ‘third spaces’, grassroots movements, and forms of solidarity that may significantly lead to re-thinking current inhabitants’ rights to the city, shared resources, and the right to living in healthy places in Ireland.

Career

Our graduates acquire valuable research, analytical and critical, spatial thinking, ethical and professional skills. The skills learned allow our graduates to find employment in various fields, such as: administration; education; services; creative industries; and working with NGOs and local government authorities. A number of our graduates go on to pursue a PhD.

One student said she ‘would never have gotten to this stage without the [M]asters’ because the high academic standards ‘helped me to define what I’m interested in’. Another student stated that ‘My MA in Geography has allowed me to expand my knowledge of working with vulnerable groups, census data and overall aspects of Human Geography’. Our graduates note that the professional research training in the MA ‘helped me demonstrate a varied skill set when interviewing for employment’ (data engineer). 

Another graduate stated that the research thesis and transferrable skills from the MA were the reason she landed a senior position ‘dream’ job in local government. Three students who went on to receive fully-funded competitive PhD fellowships acknowledged that the MA provided the skills and accomplishments leading to doctoral research: ‘This is especially true about my funding which I couldn’t continue without’.