Please click on this link to download a copy of our flyer: MA Human Geography flyer

Start Date	September
Duration	1 year full-time (2-3 years part-time)
Structure	The programme consists of 120 taught credits (60 compulsory and 60 optional credits) following by a dissertation project worth 60 credits
Entry requirements	Applicants will normally be expected to have an Upper Second Class degree, or above, in Geography or a closely related Social Science subject. Applicants with a Lower Second Class degree in Geography will be considered but only admitted where there is substantial evidence of academic ability or appropriate work-experience. Overseas applicants must also achieve a IELTS score of 6.5 or above for entry onto the degree scheme.
Funding	Details of School funding opportunities can be found here Details of University funding opportunities can be found here Details of alternative funding sources can be found here
How to apply	The Postgraduate Admissions Office Swansea University Swansea SA2 8PP Tel: + 44 (0)1792 295358 Fax: + 44 (0)1792 295110 Information for UK applicants can be found here Information for EU and overseas applicants can be found here
Further information	Dr Kevin Rees School of the Environment and Society Swansea University Swansea SA2 8PP E-mail: k.g.rees@swansea.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1792 295159

Background Information

The MA in Human Geography is designed to provide graduates with a deeper understanding of Geography's place within the social sciences and the place of academic knowledge within contemporary society.  The course will provide you with subject-specific knowledge and an advanced understanding of contemporary issues within Human Geography, combined with a capability to conduct theoretically-informed and methodologically-rigorous research.  The course concludes with a dissertation, the aim of which is to provide training in the identification, design and conduct of a significant research project. In addition to being a stand alone degree, the scheme aims to train you for PhD research.

The course draws on the research strengths of the Swansea Geography Department, including social and cultural geography; cities, space and social theory; urban/economic policy formulation and evaluation; migration and refugee policy.  Successfully completing the MA means that you will have undertaken the core research training required for PhD study at Swansea or elsewhere. But the scheme is designed with wider issues of employability in mind, comprising transferable skills and detailed subject-based knowledge relevant to various sectors of employment, ranging from social and economic policy to the cultural industries.

Content of the Programme

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Appreciate and rehearse arguments that the human sciences are radically different from the natural sciences
• Understand the contributions of key thinkers (e.g. Marx, Freud, Baudrillard) to knowledge and their influence on critical human geography
• Develop a critical understanding of key concepts in human geography, such as Nature, Space, Knowledge, the Urban, the Rural, Migrancy, and Culture
• Integrate and synthesize diverse literatures and to generate research questions based on that ability
• Identify, design and execute a theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous and inventive research project efficiently, safely and creatively

Part One (Taught Component)

In Part One, you will study three compulsory components of 20 credits each.  These are:

Social Theory and Space
Social theory has been a vitally important component of human geography ever since positivism fell from grace. It is a challenging and contested area, capable of delivering all manner of new insights, but requiring subtle and sophisticated understanding. This module covers the ways in which one might theorize society and space focusing on poststructuralist thought and its antecedents. The overall tack is to consider a number of major theorists to assess the importance of their views of the world for human geographers. The syllabus traces three fields of knowledge – political economy; psychoanalysis; and semiotics – through three different incarnations – protostructuralist; structuralist; and poststructuralist, devoting sessions to Marx, Freud, and Saussure; Althusser, Lacan, and Lévi-Strauss; and Baudrillard, Deleuze, and Derrida.

Data Collection in Context
The aim of this module is to provide an overview of methods of data collection used in social research, including observation, participant observation, various forms of interviews, social surveys, etc; and to consider the implications, strengths and weaknesses of each method and to contextualize it by detailed examination of one or more case studies that makes use of that method. 

Plus a choice of EITHER

Qualitative Research Methods
The module aims to deepen students' understanding of and facility with qualitative research methods and particularly to develop their facility in the analysis of qualitative data. To consider the theoretical and epistemological arguments for the use of qualitative research as a basis for social knowledge, as well as criticisms of these arguments.

OR

Quantitative Research Methods
This module aims to deepen students'  understanding of and facility with quanti¬tative research methods; particularly to develop their facility in the analysis of quantitative data, both those which they produce themselves and which are produced by other researchers as well as official bodies.

The remainder of Part One is composed of three optional modules of 20 credits each, all on areas of research strength within the Department.  The exact choice will vary from year to year but may include:

The Culture and Politics of Nature
The first half of the module is predominantly concerned with histories of the idea of nature, and dialogues between nature and other categories of social and cultural identity.  The second half of the module focuses on how ideas and cultures of ‘nature’ are inextricably entangled with ongoing lively political debates and actions.  The module concludes with an elucidation of how many utopian visions of everyday worlds ‘other’ to that of the capitalist present draw strongly upon specific cultures of nature.

Urban Networks and the Knowledge Economy
The first half of the module introduces postgraduate students to a wide range of global cities literatures; to demonstrate the importance of cities in the context of debates about globalization. The second half of the module explores the concept of the knowledge economy and demonstrates how the ability to generate and utilize knowledge has become crucial to economic growth and development.

Migration Theory and Practice
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the various aspects of migration in both the developed and developing world. Themes and issues which are explored in detail include: theoretical approaches to the study of international migration; international labour migration; the relationship between migration and development; gender and migration; transnational communities and diaspora; and governance of migration. Throughout the module specific reference is made to measurement and research issues associated with understanding international migration. 

Consumer Culture: Modern and Postmodern
Consumption affects every aspect of the contemporary world, from the most intimate moments of everyday life to the great geopolitical struggles that have been set in train by the forces of globalization. Consumer culture has recast the world in its own image, and we are only just beginning to make sense of the enormous social, political, economic, moral, and environmental implications. Through a series of seminars focused on key readings, students will engage with the history and geography of consumer societies, the social and political aspects of consumer culture, and the discourses and practices of consumption. The module is assessed through three critical reviews.

Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
This module introduces the principles, practice and key issues of environmental management, with a focus on sustainable development. Other key themes include: the precautionary principle, awareness of and coping with environmental change, anticipatory development approaches, environmental and resource degradation issues. There will be coverage of development/developing country environmental management topics and global challenges.

Forced Migration
This specialist module examines the causes, patterns and consequences of forced migration in the developed and developing worlds. Themes and issues which are explored in detail include: the root causes (political, economic and social) of forced migration, including development-induced displacement; the scale and patterns of forced migration; internal displacement; the asylum-migration nexus; the international legal and humanitarian framework for protection; policy and practice in relation to asylum seeking; the refugee experience; gender issues in forced migration; and long-term and durable solutions to forced migration. Specific themes and issues are illustrated by specific case studies.

Cultural Difference and Change in British Society
The module considers the general problem of what culture is and how cultures work. It uses sociological and anthropological theories to examine the changing nature of British culture. The central theme of the module is the need to understand cultural difference and change in relation to the positions people occupy in social structures. It uses particular examples of different cultures within a single society, such as black and ethnic minority groups, the ‘white working class’, contemporary youth cultures, cultures of consumption, gendered organisational cultures and the cultures of immigrants and asylum seekers. Particular attention is given to the uneven development of multiculturalism in British society and the implications this has for policy makers in the inner cities and large urban conurbations. The aim is to encourage students to adopt a comparative and historical perspective.

Cultural Systems around the World
This module explores the following issues: how sociologists and anthropologists understand and analyse ‘culture’ and ‘cultures’; changing approaches to culture in the post-colonial era; gender as a marker of different cultures; embodiment in different cultures; cultural  forms of resistance; cultural appropriation of media.

Part Two (Dissertation Component)

In Part Two, students progress to a directed research project (60 credits).  This individual project requires the student - aided by a supervisor - to apply and develop a wide variety of transferable and subject-specific skills to a research problem within the field of Human Geography. The final results of the research dissertation will be presented in a 20,000 word (maximum) research dissertation.

(If 60 credits are completed successfully during Part One (out of a total of 120 credits), a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education may be awarded. Similarly, if 120 credits are completed successfully during Part One of the course and Part Two is not completed, a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education may be awarded.)