Our vibrant research community has a strong international profile and is broadly divided into five research groups:

Environmental Dynamics

The main focus of this research group is on understanding enviornmental variability throughout the Quaternary and the effects of future climatic change. The research focuses on regions especially sensitive to environmental change (Tropical, cold and fire-prone) and also considers interactions between climatic change, human disturbance and catastrophic events.  

Glaciology

The group undertakes reseach in glaciology and the cryosphere, specialising in understanding the processes that regulate glacier dynamics, flow instabilities and surging, and glacier fast flow. The group uses a variety of techniques including geophysics, numerical modelling and remote sensing, and current field projects span the Artctic, Antarctic and the Alps.

Global Environmental Modelling and Earth Observation 

This group's research addresses a range of environmental issues including the interactions between vegetation and climate, glacier dynamics, and urbanization. The group is instrumental to the Climate and Land-Surface Interaction Centre (CLASSIC), which is a NERC Centre of Excellence.

Migration, Boundaries and Identities

The research undertaken within this group focuses on the social and political construction of place, nationalism and nationhood, on relationships between international migration, globalisation and the conceptualisation of place, and on geographies of exclusion, particularly as these relate to issues of race, gender and childhood.

Social Theory and Urban Space

The group's research focuses on theoretically informed understandings of space and spatiality, with particular reference to modern and postmodern cities. This theoretical ambition embraces a range of conceptual approaches, most notably those associated with poststructuralism.

As a postgraduate research student you will belong to one or more of these groups, along with academics, post-docs, and other researchers. Each group meets regularly to discuss the latest research in their area, and to support each other in their own research. Further information about our research groups is available here

PLEASE NOTE that although there is no deadline for applying to undertake postgraduate research in the Department, there are deadlines for the allocation of funding. Candidates must apply for a research degree in order to be eligible for the available funding (i.e. the application must be made before or at the same time as the application for funding).

If you are interested in joining us and studying for a research degree (MPhil or PhD), the links below will take you to further information on the opportunities currently available in the Department and how to apply for them:

Postgraduate Research Topics

Doing Research in the Geography Department

Research Funding

How to Apply

For further information please email Dr Heaven Crawley, Postgraduate Admissions Tutor for Geography 

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