Available to Geography students only:

This intermediate level module offers undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct field and archival work in human geography using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. The location may change from year to year, and the module is intended to cover fieldwork in both the UK and internationally. It will also allow projects to be conducted across a wide range of subdisciplinary and interdisciplinary fields of human geography: urban, historical, political, cultural, economic, social, environmental, and more. In 2022-23 we will hopefully be visiting Glasgow, Scotland.

The module will allow students to engage critically with aspects of the site, to practice research methods, and to think about research design, tying this module to a number of compulsory modules (Methods, Practice of Geography) and optional modules.

The module will focus on a number of themes of interest to contemporary research in these subdisciplines of human geography connecting them to the specificities of Glasgow’s history as Britain’s ‘Second City of Empire’; how the city is narrated, performed and understood; and how Glasgow’s historical and contemporary architecture connects to its global geographies. Through these broad thematics, the module aims to introduce students to working with historical, textual, visual and ethnographic sources to better understand Glasgow’s historical, cultural and social geographies.

The trip itself will take place in induction week (26th – 30th Sep 2022), and will cover a range of day-long projects over four to five days. Given the changing parameters for residential fieldtrips, these details are subject to changes should the need arise. 

Fieldwork will include visits to museums and other city sites; walks; researching original materials in the City archives; and work on individual projects. This will help you to prepare for the assessed work by providing you with a chance to research one of these topics:

- the historical, cultural or social geographies of a city site;

- Glasgow as the Second City of Empire

- Narrating, performing, understanding Glasgow

- Architecture, Glasgow and the World

Students taking this module will develop the following careers skills: Critical thinking; Team working; Interpersonal skills; Communication: academic writing; Communication: verbal; Presentation skills; Time management; Qualitative research skills (observation, note-taking, research design and implementation); Qualitative analysis (discourse and visual analysis); Field work (observation, note-taking).