BA (Honours) Human Geography
Three years full-time or four years full-time (including one year work placement or year of study abroad)
UCAS code • L720
Location • City Campus
Subject area • Geography
Related subjects • Planning, housing and regeneration • Sociology and politics
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View profiles of students on this course
Watch a video of our students talking about what they gained from their work-based learning project.
Find out about our geography teaching team.
At a glance
Study aspects of social behaviour, including cultural, economic and political activity, at both global and local scales. You can specialise in key areas that interest you by choosing from a wide range of optional modules, and can also apply for work-based learning and placement opportunities, in the UK and overseas.
Key points
• Study human activity and its impact on various settings.
• Gain real insight into your subject with field-courses in diverse cities such as London, Berlin and Barcelona.
• Specialise in areas such as planning and regeneration or study a language.
• Choose to study abroad or take the opportunity of a work-placement in private, governmental or voluntary organisations.
What is human geography?
Human geography is a major field of geography which explores the ways in which human activities influence, and are influenced by, space, place and the wider environment. We focus strongly on an exploration of the impacts of political, economic, historical, social, cultural and environmental geographies and understanding how these help us make sense of the complex world in which we live.
This course
This course provides a deeper insight into economics, politics, culture and environmentalism by studying the dynamic geographies of human activity, and how this has changed over time, at both a local and global level.
This knowledge base is both theoretical and practical and addresses many of the most pressing issues in contemporary society. This combination ensures that you gain a range of highly desirable core and transferable skills which are relevant to UK and overseas employers.
In your first year, you gain a broad introduction to human geographical topics including • environmental issues • government and markets • geographies of the city • issues in the developing world.
You work on case studies and respond to questions that are relevant to academic and policy making communities, and we encourage you to draw on your own personal experiences. You also use specialist examples, ranging from housing and transportation within the context of urban and rural regeneration and sustainability.
There is a strong emphasis on the importance of developing your knowledge and skills in the field, and gaining valuable first-hand experiences on the course. You take part in a substantial amount of UK-based fieldwork, which includes local and regional activities as well as a week-long residential in London. Overseas residential field-courses also form an integral part of the course, and currently these take place in Berlin and Barcelona.
To reflect your individual interests the course allows you to tailor your studies by choosing from a range of optional modules. These include various aspects of human geography and also more applied modules in the areas of planning, regeneration and GIS.
You can choose to study a foreign language throughout your degree, which, combined with the international fieldwork and the opportunities for overseas study and placements, helps you to develop your ability to find jobs overseas.
You also develop other skills which are invaluable for your future career including IT, presentation and communication skills, critical thinking and group-work. You can also increase your experience and skills in a professional setting on the work-based learning module.
During year three, you have the option to complete a work placement or study abroad for up to one year. This may involve working with private companies or government and voluntary organisations in the UK or Europe. It’s a great opportunity to focus on a career path and gain the skills, knowledge and experience to find a job after you graduate.
You benefit from the research interests and expertise of our staff who have strong active links with organisations involved in regeneration, housing, planning, environment and international development.
Key areas of study
Key areas include • sustainable development • geographical information systems (GIS) • philosophical approaches to space and place • dissident geographies • contemporary debates in geography • development issues in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East • globalisation and alter-globalisation movements.
Related courses
You apply for this course through UCAS.
2013/14 academic year
For 2013 entry, mandatory UK field trips are included in the course fee.
The course fee may be subject to annual inflationary increase. For further information on fees and funding see www.shu.ac.uk/study/ug/fees-and-funding
2013/14 academic year
Typically £10,680 a year
2014/15 academic year
Typically £11,250 a year
The course fee may be subject to annual inflationary increase. For further information on fees, scholarships and bursaries see www.shu.ac.uk/international/fees
• overseas and local fieldwork • individual and group project work • written reports • essays • presentations • seen and unseen examinations
Find out about work placements and how we can support your placement experience.
Optional year-long work placements are normally gained by competitive interview and are not a guaranteed part of a course.
Key Information Set 
Lindsay McCarthy
BA (Hons) Human Geography, 2009 graduate
'I was drawn to Sheffield Hallam primarily because it offered the course I was most interested in. Having lived in Sheffield for three years, I found it to be one of the friendliest cities I've visited. It has so much to offer in terms of culture, nightlife, and green space. I hope to return to live in the city in future years!
'The lecturers made a significant contribution to my enjoyment of the course. At all times, they were always ready to help and offer advice, as well as introducing me to new ideas.
'The seminars involved a variety of tasks, and different approaches to learning, ensuring that they were both challenging and stimulating. The field trips to various European cities allowed students to put into practice the theories learned in the classroom, and also a chance to let one's hair down and get to know fellow course mates.
'Since I had taken a gap year before I started at Sheffield Hallam I was a little rusty at certain aspects of the course, in particular giving presentations. However, staff were keen to offer constructive feedback and helpful advice so that by my final year I felt considerably more confident.
'My advice to prospective students would be to find an area that you feel passionate about within human geography and to read around it as much as possible. But, at the same time, it's important to combine this with taking advantage of all that Sheffield has to offer in terms of entertainment and nightlife.'
Profiles
Lindsay McCarthy
BA (Hons) Human Geography, 2009 graduate
Work-based learning (4:30)
In your second or third year, you can take an optional module called work-based project on this course. Watch our students talking about their experiences of the module and what they have gained.
Dr Andrew Jobling
Course leader for BSc (Hons) Geography
Andrew joined Sheffield Hallam in September 2007. His work is focused on agrarian change, economic restructuring and rural politics in Latin America where he has several years of fieldwork experience. He has contributed to projects exploring relations between trade unions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
His key research interests are relations between small farms and agribusiness in Latin America, the restructuring of the Peruvian sugar industry and community management of irrigation in the Andean region.
Teaching interests
• issues in the developing world
• development in Latin America
• development in Africa and the Middle East
• introduction to human geography
• geographies of the city
• research development
Research and consultancy projects
Jobling, A (2006) Labour, Community, Region: Knowledge Transfer Centre Development Project Report, University of Liverpool/Amicus the Union.
Jobling, A (2004) ‘Outreach Male Parenting Support: an Evaluation’ in Northwood and Southdene East Sure Start Evaluation, The Centre for the Child the Family and the Law, University of Liverpool.
Dr Richard White
Course leader for BA (Hons) Human Geography
Richard joined Sheffield Hallam University from Warwick University in November 2006. To date, his principal areas of research have collectively focused on understanding the geographies of the informal economy in the minority world/advanced economies generally and in particular through exploring community self-help, mutual aid and reciprocity.
Richard has formally participated in many conferences and seminars both in the UK and overseas. In 2008, he was part of an official EU delegation team sent to Mexico City to contribute to the opening EU-Mexico dialogue on employment and social policy.
Teaching interests
• economic geography
• political economy
• radical philosophy
• dissident and critical geographies
• moral geographies and the political economy of animal rights
• research methods in the social sciences
• theorizing urban change
• conflict and protest movements
Author of
Williams CC and White RJ 2008 'Variations in the nature of the hidden economy and its public policy implications' in: Henckel D, Spars G & Wukovitsch F (eds) Arbeiten in der Grauzone, (Peter Lang: Frankfurt).
Green AE and White RJ 2008 'Shaped by place: young people’s decisions about education, training and work' Benefits: The Journal of Poverty and SocialJustice, Vol 16. No 3, pp 213-224.
Dr Camila Bassi
Course leader for MSc Urban Regeneration
Camila graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1997 with a first-class honours degree in geography, and was awarded a DPhil from the University of Sheffield in 2003. Her Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded PhD was in the field of social geography, more specifically, it explored the interrelationships of 'racial', ethnic and sexual identities as linked to commercial space and political economy.
Research interests
• minority culture to urban political economy
• competing histories of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Teaching interests
• development in Africa and the Middle East
• globalisation debate
• global perspectives on regeneration
• introduction to human geography
• social inclusion and cohesion
• urban change and conflict
Author of
• Bassi C 2010 ''The anti-imperialism of fools': A cautionary story on the revolutionary left vanguard of England’s post-9/11 anti-war movement' ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 9(2), 113-137. Download the article (pdf)
• Bassi C 2008 'Book Reviews: Risky pleasures? Club cultures and feminine identities by Fiona Hutton' Gender, Place & Culture, 15(4), 445-455.
Andrew Jones
Course leader for MSc Geographical Information Systems
Prior to joining the University in 2008, Andrew worked concurrently for the Peak District National Park Authority as their access officer, and on the research team of the Moors for the Future Project for four years.
His position as access officer involved the management and monitoring of recreational access to the countryside, whilst his work for Moors for the Future focused on developing and running a number of research projects studying the moorland environment of the Peak District, as well as engendering wider interest in moorland environmental research and facilitating knowledge transfer and cross disciplinary research work between other research institutions involved in the field of moorland and peatland systems research.
Andrew also works as a freelance geographical information systems (GIS) consultant for a number of companies and organisations.
Research interests
• modelling and managing recreation in the countryside
• hydrology and the management of peatland systems
• peatland carbon cycles
• GIS as a spatial decision making tool
Teaching interests
• principles and practices of GIS
• GIS and transport
• GIS and the environment
• applied GIS
Publications
• Allott, T.E.H., Evans, M.G., Lindsay, J.B., Agnew, C.T., Freer, J.E., Jones, A. & Parnell, M. (2009). Water tables in Peak District blanket peatlands. Moors for the Future Report No 17.
• Flitcroft, C. (2007). Peak District Moorland Visitor Attitude and Recreational Use Survey. Moors for the Future Report No 12.
Dr Alan Patterson
Geography and environment academic group leader
Alan has worked as a mining surveyor before studying environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia. After graduating he worked on the Future of Welfare project in the Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy at the University of Bath. Then he moved to the University of Sussex to read for an MA in urban and regional studies before joining the doctoral research programme at the University of Reading.
His first permanent academic post was as a lecturer in human geography at the West London Institute, then at Brunel University where he became deputy head of the department of geography and earth sciences, before coming to Sheffield Hallam University as course leader for geography in October 2004. He is currently the academic group leader for geography and environment.
Research interests
• local economic
• environmental and political interventions by the modern capitalist state,
• political economy of the public sector
• policies for sustainable development,
• role of informal currencies in boosting depressed local economies and alleviating individual poverty
Teaching interests
• urban social geography
• geographies of political economy
• philosophy and methodology.
Selected publications
Batchelor AL and Patterson A (2007) ‘Political modernisation and the weakening of sustainable development in Britain’ Chpt 7 in: Krueger JR and Gibbs DC (eds) The Sustainable Development Paradox: urban political economy in the United States and Europe (Guilford, NY).
Aldridge TJ, Patterson A and Tooke J (2003)‘Trading places: geography and the role of LETS in local sustainable development’ in: Buckingham S and Theobald KS (eds) Local Environmental Sustainability (Woodhead, Cambridge) pp169-194.
Aldridge TJ and Patterson A (2002) ‘LETS get real: constraints on the development of Local Exchange Trading Schemes’ Area 34 (4) pp370-381.
Alexandra Savage
Physical Geography Lecturer
Alexandra achieved a BSc in Geography before undertaking a MSc in Soils and Environmental Pollution. Alexandra has 8 years' experience as a contaminated land consultant, working to identify the nature and extent of pollution on past industrial sites, and engaging with stakeholders to formulate and execute plans for remediation. In addition, she was involved in a number of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for new developments. She has also undertaken policy research on the effectiveness of compliance assessment within the Environment Agency.
In 2007, Alexandra did a PhD at the University of Leeds looking at the effect of land management on carbon loses from upland blanket peats in northern England. The impact of land management on the carbon cycle and its drivers was determined through examination of the physical and chemical properties of the peats, and field measurements of gaseous and aqueous losses of carbon.
Alexandra has experience in the secondary education sector both as a teaching assistant and as a cover teacher. In addition, Alexandra participated in the Royal Geographical Society's "Geography Ambassadors" scheme to encourage the uptake of geography as a subject at GCSE, A-level and university level.
Research interests
• soils science - in particular highly organic soils and contaminated soils
• regeneration of urban areas from an environmental perspective
• carbon cycling
• composting of wastes
• land management
Teaching interests
• understanding landscapes
• introduction to physical geography
• environmental science
• geomorphology
• research methods
• contemporary debates in Geography
• landscape rehabilitation
• landscape planning and restoration
Presentations
Oral Presentations
• Understanding the Impact of Land Management on Carbon Losses from Peatlands EGU Vienna May 2010
• The Role of Land Management on Carbon Cycling in Peatlands at the 2nd International BioHydrology Conference - A Changing Climate for Biology and Soil Hydrology Interactions, Bratislava, 2009
• Methods of Investigating the Effects of Peatland Management on Carbon Cycling at the British Soil Science Society's "Young Scientists" conference, March 2009, Reading
Poster Presentations
• Assessing the Impact of Land Management on Organic Matter Composition in Peats EGU, Vienna, May 2010
Josie Wilson
Principal Lecturer
Josie graduated in urban studies and MA Geographical Information Systems from the University of Leeds. She specialises in geographical information systems (GIS) which she teaches at postgraduate level. She belongs to the British Cartographic Society and is also a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.
Josie joined the University in 1998 and has taught on various undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Josie has a passion for teaching and lectures in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in many areas including social and regional issues, the principles and practices of GIS; GIS for business, dissertation and applied research methods.
Recent publications
RTPI conference on GIS and Strategic Environmental Agencies. October 2006.
Wilson J and Cheesebrough J (2006) Beyond the looking table, Association of American Geographers 7.3.2006 Chicago.
Profiles
Dr Andrew Jobling
Course leader for BSc (Hons) Geography
Dr Richard White
Course leader for BA (Hons) Human Geography
Dr Camila Bassi
Course leader for MSc Urban Regeneration
Andrew Jones
Course leader for MSc Geographical Information Systems
Dr Alan Patterson
Geography and environment academic group leader
Alexandra Savage
Physical Geography Lecturer
Josie Wilson
Principal Lecturer
