Department of Geography

Overview: Taught Postgraduate Programmes in Risk, Hazards, Climate and Politics

Our postgraduate courses share and interdisciplinary foundation in risk and vulnerability. Our different degree programmes deepen students’ understanding of the risks emerging from anthropogenic climate change, hazards and political responses to disruption. Each program provides with the skills, data analysis techniques and expertise to tackle big problems.

You can view our 2024 Taught Masters in Geography prospectus here: Postgraduate prospectus 2024

Environmental Hazards & Risk

This pathway provides specialised scientific training in environmental hazards that pose large risks to communities living throughout the world — such as earthquakes, flooding events, landslides and many others. Students will receive theoretical and practical training for understanding, quantifying and/or critically evaluating environmental hazards and the relationship of these with issues of vulnerability and resilience. You will learn about how environmental hazards and risks persist over long periods of time instead of merely as single events, and are made up of both natural processes as well as socio-economic dynamics. The pathway is available for both MA and MSc students. Its main modules are ‘Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Hazards’ and ‘Hydro-meteorological Hazards’.

Course Structure:

MA Modules:

EITHER Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Hazards
OR Hydro-meteorological Hazards
Understanding Risk
Risk Frontiers
Research or Vocational Dissertation Project
Research Methods for Global Challenges
Social Dimensions of Risk & Resilience

For more information on how to apply to the MA, click here.

MSc Modules:

Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Hazards
Hydro-meteorological Hazards
Risk, Science & Communication
Understanding Risk
Risk Frontiers
Research or Vocational Dissertation Project.

For more information on how to apply to the MSc, click here.

For module descriptions and our approach to teaching and learning, click here.

Climate, Risk & Society

The MA and MSc in Climate, Risk & Society provide students with an advanced understanding of anthropogenic climate change as an issue that poses new risks to society, challenges and vulnerabilities. These programmes give students tools for apprehending, interpreting and responding to the emerging natural and socio-political threats associated to climate change.

The Climate Risk and Society pathway provokes students to think critically about how evolving understandings of risk, resilience and vulnerability shape efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The pathway is available to both MA and MSc students, and its main module is ‘Climate Risk and Society’.

Course Structure:

MA Modules:

Climate, Risk & Society
Social Dimensions of Risk & Resilience
Understanding Risk
Risk Frontiers
Research or Vocational Dissertation Project
Research Methods for Global Challenges

For information on how to apply to the MA, click here.

MSc Modules:

Climate, Risk & Society
Risk, Science & Communication
Understanding Risk
Risk Frontiers
EITHER Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Hazards
OR Hydro-meteorological Hazards
Research or Vocational Dissertation Project.

More information on how to apply to the MSc, click here.

For module descriptions and our approach to teaching and learning, click here.

Risk, Security & Politics

This pathway is aimed at students interested in security-related risk, offering advanced skills in the critical analysis of issues such as risk and migration, risk within geo-politics, security and terrorism. The pathway critically unpacks ideas of risk and resilience, pointing to their political implications. It evaluates the ways by which uncertainty plays a key role in the contemporary making of society, and uncovers risk not simply as a matter of management and governance but also as a political technique through which populations are governed. The pathway is available to MA students. Its main module is ‘Social Dimensions of Risk and Resilience’, alongside a range of modules in the fields of international relations and social policy.

For more information on how to apply to the MA in Risk, Security & Politics, click here.

Course Structure:

Social Dimensions of Risk & Resilience
Understanding Risk
Risk Frontiers
Research or Vocational Dissertation Project
Research Methods for Global Challenges
and one elective:
Social Policy (Department of Sociology)
Debating the European Union (School of Government & International Affairs)
International Politics of the Middle East (School of Government & International Affairs)
Politics of East Asia (School of Government & International Affairs)

For module descriptions and our approach to teaching and learning, click here.

Click on the link below to hear from Dr Lauren Martin about the Taught Postgraduate Programmes we offer in Geography (a video from our 2024 online open day):

Postgraduate online open day video 2024