Contemporary Human Geography (Research Methods)

Overview

One third of the course (60 credits) will provide specific training based upon the pathway chosen.

A further 60 credits will deliver generic research skills training required in order for ESRC Research Training Accreditation. This is delivered in combination with Planning staff in the Department, but also in combination with students studying in Sociology.

Finally, students will also undertake a 60 credit dissertation. This piece of independent research will allow students to develop the skills developed during the taught components of the research and to focus on a topic of interest to them.

Students of the Contemporary Human Geography (Research Methods) programme from University of Liverpool will undertake 60 credits of taught work relevant to their chosen pathway. In Social/Cultural Geography, this would involve key areas/concepts of interest to contemporary human geography and related to staff expertise. An indicative list would involve issues such as identity, political activism and resistance, experiences of migration and diaspora, alternative economic practices, and health and the lifecourse. In Population Geography, a similar list could include demographic theory, household-level analysis of population trends, analysing social segregation, and critically interpreting migration statistics.

Career prospects

Our degrees provide pathways into rewarding careers and our graduates have found employment in a wide range of industries and organisations, both in the UK and abroad. Graduates of the Environment and Climate Change MSc have gone on to continue their studies towards a PhD, or are employed in a wide range of positions, including environmental, energy and engineering consultancies, multinational companies (energy),  local government, environmental bodies, research positions and teaching.

PhD graduates are now working in academic life as lecturers in Geography, Environmental Science, Economic History, Development Studies and Statistics at universities in the UK and overseas. Others are employed in applied fields, working in Europe, Africa and across the world, for example as professional statisticians (one is now Director of Statistics in Zambia, another working in the Health Service in the UK), development professionals (including a member of staff on the WHO malaria programme in East Africa), and scientists at climate and environmental research centres around the world.

Students will be well placed to undertake a career in social science research at the end of their studies, both in an academic and a non-academic environment.