LECX4101: Foundation Skills for LEC

• Terms Taught:   Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: A-level/high school equivalent Science and/or Geography

Course Description

This module aims to provide an integrative introduction to undergraduate studies in LEC. It will serve multiple purposes within this overarching aim. Firstly, it will provide a mechanism for supporting students as they settle into the university and LEC, signposting them to wider support and guidance, helping them to understand what universities and environmental researchers do and their role in society and how to navigate their part in this, as an undergraduate student, successfully. Secondly, it will develop core, generic skills vital for success, including engaging with literature, working ethically and with academic integrity, dealing with referencing, plagiarism and use of AI, understanding marking criteria and using feedback in their learning. Thirdly, it will develop communication skills in written, oral and graphic forms. Fourthly, it will introduce students to both individual and group-based work. Fifthly, it will begin the process of reflecting on their future pathways and potential careers. Sixthly, it will introduce students to the nature and range of research carried out in LEC and enable them to gain insights into this research focused on their programme discipline. Finally, and crucially, it will train them in the basic use of essential software: Excel, R (for quantitative data analysis) and ArcGIS (for spatial data analysis).

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

• Describe research challenges within LEC’s remit, demonstrating awareness of their complexity and the multiple approaches needed to address them.
• Obtain information from quantitative and qualitative sources across the LEC disciplines and appreciate the implications of the context of its production.
• Carry out basic analysis of data using appropriate software.
• Describe research design principles based on ethics and academic integrity.
• Work independently and with others using organisational skills and time management.
• Create outputs that communicate different types of information.
• Describe potential options for future employability or study.

Outline Syllabus

The module will consist of four linked sets of activities. The first will cover fundamental questions about university study, academic research, the challenges that LEC addresses, the impact in society of LEC’s work, and differences in approaches to these issues across the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Discussion of these issues will be focused on example challenges, which may include topics such as the climate crisis, sustainable agriculture, conservation or human migration. The second will address general, practical issues including settling in, how to navigate undergraduate study successfully, core skills (writing, engaging with literature etc.) and beginning to reflect on students’ potential future directions. The third will develop students’ abilities to use software packages to handle quantitative and spatial data. The fourth will develop students’ awareness of the research that goes on in LEC and grow their confidence in engaging with teaching staff.

Assessment Proportions

The teaching strategy will use a mix of whole-class lecture theatre sessions, small group tutorials, computer laboratory practicals, staff interviews and supported group work. These will introduce students to different types of learning context. While the whole class or large group activities will be used for efficient and consistent delivery of core teaching, the small group and computer lab elements will give students the opportunity to settle themselves into study in LEC and to engage with their cohort and LEC staff. Whole-class sessions will be Panopto recorded for accessibility, while small group sessions will enable individualised, EDI-sensitive support.

Learning outside of contact time will be carefully guided and signposted by staff teaching on the module. Formative feedback will be a strong element of the module, delivered via the tutorials and computer lab sessions, and through feedback on an exercise that will require small groups of students to interview selected LEC staff members about their research interests.

Summative assessment will take the form of one individual piece of work and one group portfolio. Creation of these will be partially supervised during teaching sessions and will feature questioning and assessing GAI outputs by students.

LECX4113: Global Human Geography

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: A-Level/high school equivalent Geography  

Course Description

This module aims to provide a Level 4 foundation in Global Human Geography, specifically three key sub-disciplines within this subject: Development Geography, Environmental Geography and Economic Geography. It will be taught through a combination of lectures and practical workshops and a self-guided field walk ensuring that alongside geographical knowledge, students are developing core practical and critical academic skills such as critical literature review and essay writing.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Describe key concepts in development geography, environmental geography, and economic geography.
2. Discuss key processes of geographical change affecting development, environment and economy in different parts of the world
3. Demonstrate how to use, understand and critically analyse peer-reviewed literature in relation to development, economy and environment.
4. Use and communicate key geographical concepts related to development, environment and economy, effectively.
5. Conduct qualitative observations within an urban context, recording notes and collecting relevant evidence, and applying this evidence to core concepts from the module.

Outline Syllabus

Global Human Geography will focus specifically on three human geography sub-fields; development geography, environmental geography and economic geography. This will provide a Level 4 grounding in these subject areas that can be built on in optional pathways in Level 5. The three sub-fields will be taught in equal ‘blocks’ within the module and provide introductory level content around key concepts and key processes of geographical change affecting development, environment and economy in different parts of the world. Key skills will be embedded within the module teaching and assessment, including the critical analysis of peer-reviewed literature in relation to these components of Global Human Geography (Assessment 1), and in the written communication of key geographical concepts, linked to qualitative observations of the urban environment (Assessment 2). This module will also lay the foundation for skills further developed in the Society and Place module (LECX4214).

Assessment Proportions

This module will be delivered through lectures, workshops and an independent guided walking tour of Lancaster. There will be an introductory lecture and a wrap up lecture. The remaining lectures will be delivered in blocks relating to the three themes: development, environment and economic geography. Each block will have a workshop attached. There will be an independent guided walking tour (written guide) of Lancaster delivered that will link to the coursework essay. A coursework support drop-in session will be provided for formative feedback and support. The workshops will support core content but additionally incorporate skills building, with a focus on critically reviewing human geography literature (ie. critical reading, critical writing, critically evaluating human geography data presented in peer-reviewed material) which will link to coursework assessment 1. Students will relate concepts from the module to the real world by incorporating observations from their walking tour to their coursework essay question (assessment 2).

LECX4115: Reading the Landscape

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS Credits 
• Pre-requisites: A-Level/high school equivalent Geography 

Course Description

This module aims to define the concept of landscapes and introduce students to the skills and knowledge needed to interpret and explain how they have evolved, what is happening in them now, and how they might evolve in the future. It will also reflect on how this knowledge has been, and is being, developed and on its value to science and society. Amongst the skills it will encompass are field observation and measurement; interpretation of data from a wide variety of sources; and identifying nested scales of forms and their process-based links in time and space. It will break down the process of landscape evolution, starting with the underlying geology and the overarching climate and proceeding to biotic, pedological, sedimentary, aquatic and glacial processes. The nature and effects of these processes will be put together from a geomorphological perspective, casting the landscape as being made up of dynamically interacting and evolving features across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Thus, by the end of the module, the students will be able to see landscapes through a process-based lens and interpret their features in terms of their evolution to date, current dynamics and future.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Describe landscape forms and processes across a range of spatial and temporal scales.
2. Interpret landscapes in terms of their evolution to their present state, present dynamics, and potential future evolution.
3. Explain how our knowledge of landscapes has, and is being, developed and its value to wider scientific research and society.
4. Apply field observation and measurement skills to identify and summarise the nature of landscape forms and processes.

Outline Syllabus

The module will begin with a one-day fieldtrip that will introduce students to the skill of “reading” the landscape through physical geography goggles and practices. It will then build on those initial insights to break down landscape evolution, starting with the underlying geology and the overarching climate and proceeding to sedimentary, pedological, glacial, aquatic, biotic and anthropogenic processes. Finally, it will put all this process understanding into a geomorphological context, thus activating it to enable landscape interpretation in terms of a nested hierarchy of form-process interactions across a wide range of scales of time and space. In doing so, it will reflect on the scientific and social value of understanding landscape form and dynamics; how our knowledge of landscapes has been developed; and why/whether we can be confident of its truthfulness.

Assessment Proportions

The module will begin with a local field excursion (e.g. Forest of Bowland) (MLO4) and the rest of the module will be delivered in the form of 3-hour sessions in a flexible combination of traditional lecture delivery, breakout group activities, ‘plenary’ discussions, and micro-fieldtrips based on the campus. EDI concerns will be addressed for the fieldtrip by ensuring that appropriate transportation is available for all students, and that activities contain elements that can be carried out at or close to the drop off point at each stop. Each session will be delivered by a member of the teaching team with appropriate expertise, but their fit to the rest of the module will be carefully guided by the module leader.

Assessment will be via groupwork portfolios and individual commentaries thereon. These will be built on, and formative feedback provided on them, through the semester as part of the contact time sessions. The groupwork element of the assessment will focus on the ‘content’ – interpreting landscapes using the insights of individual perspectives gained during the taught sessions – while the individual commentaries will focus more on the integrating and reflective aspects of the module, i.e., the ‘putting it all together’, geomorphological focus, and the reflective aspects that will be weaved throughout the module: scientific and social value of understanding landscape form and dynamics; how our knowledge of landscapes has been developed historically; and why/whether we can be confident of its truthfulness.

LECX4212: Introducing Research in Geography

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: A Level / High School quivalent Geography

Course Description

This module aims to introduce students to Geography as a coherent, progressive, broad, multi-dimensional discipline that explores the complex, reciprocal relationships between societies and environments. It will thus provide an integrative foundation for students on all Geography programmes, enabling them to position their specific interests within the discipline as a whole. It will also introduce and develop Geographical research skills of design, data collection and analysis, and communication of findings, via a short residential fieldtrip. Crucially, before doing this, it will explore the sorts of questions that Geography research is concerned with, how these have evolved out of the discipline’s history, how that history still shapes the discipline today, and how the challenges that its influence brings can be dealt with in the future. Thus, what research is done and how it is done will be put in context, enabling students to better understand it and empowering them to be able to help move the discipline forward.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Describe the nature of the discipline of Geography, including its sub-disciplines and the similarities and differences between the challenges they address and the approaches they take.
2. Discuss how Geography’s disciplinary history has shaped what it is today and how that might influence might be addressed in future.
3. Design (with support) and execute basic research, including applying quantitative, qualitative and spatial data analysis techniques to data.
4. Recognise ways of carrying out fieldwork ethically, safely, professionally and with intellectual integrity.
5. Summarise and explain research findings.

Outline Syllabus

The module will begin with consideration of the nature of the discipline of Geography, and its fundamental foci of environment, society, space, place, time and scale. It will then address what sorts of questions are addressed by different sub-disciplines and how this has evolved over time. This will lead into coverage of the history and often thorny risks and ethics of geographical research, taking into account decolonization, military links and alternative ways of perceiving and exploring the human and natural worlds. Following from this, different styles of writing and ways of handling different types of data – quantitative, qualitative and spatial will be addressed, and the different power and appropriateness of different types of information resulting from these data considered. This will then link back to the issue of what sort of questions can be addressed by different types of information.

Having gained this overview of the variety of possible ways of investigating the world within Geography, the module will culminate in an introduction to their application via preparation and execution of a basic, group research project on a short residential fieldtrip and presentation of its findings.

Assessment Proportions

The module will be delivered via a combination of lectures, tutorials, fieldwork, group and independent learning activities. The earlier parts of the module will be delivered as whole-class sessions, including elements of traditional lecturing, break out groups, plenary feedback sessions, video screenings, Mentimeter/Kahoot type feedback activities, magic carpet rides etc. The data handling elements of the module will be delivered via more focused sessions on, respectively, quantitative, qualitative and spatial data techniques. Learning of these elements of the module will be supported by smaller group tutorial sessions, in which formative assessment and feedback will feature strongly.

A key element of the module will be a short (1-2 nights) residential fieldtrip towards the end of its running. This will enable students to gain introductory experience of designing and executing a small, group research project and presenting its findings.

Summative assessment will be two-fold. The first part will focus on students responding to the material presented in the earlier part of the module (up to the consideration of different types of writing and data handling). The second will focus on them demonstrating their ability to carry out the fieldtrip research project and communicate its findings.

LECX4214: Society and Place

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: A Level / High school equivalent Geography

Course Description

This module aims to provide a Level 4 foundation in Human Geography, focussing on three of its key sub-disciplines and their associated themes, concepts and debates: i.e., Social Geography, Cultural Geography and Political Geography.

The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures and workshops/seminars that will ensure that students develop key skills in critical analysis, essay writing and the use of academic literature.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Describe key concepts and debates in contemporary social geography, cultural geography and political geography.
2. Discuss the interactions between society and space and people and place in different geographic contexts and at different spatial scales.
3. Demonstrate how to use, understand and critically analyse academic literature in relation to key themes and concepts in social, cultural and political geography.
4. Use and effectively communicate key concepts in contemporary social, cultural and political geography.
5. Undertake qualitative?observations in a local environment, taking photographs, recording notes, collecting relevant evidence and applying this to core concepts from the module.

Outline Syllabus

Society and Place will focus on three specific sub-disciplines in human geography, i.e., social geography, cultural geography and political geography. This will give Level 4 students a solid basis to build optional pathways in Levels 5 and 6. The module will be equally divided into three ‘blocks’; each will provide introductory level content into key concepts, themes and ideas relating to their respective sub-discipline. Key skills will be embedded across module teaching and assessment exercise, including: the critical analysis of academic literature and debate and the effective written communication of key concepts and themes in contemporary Human Geography (both Assessment 1).

This module lays the basis for Human Geography skills and knowledge further developed in LECX5224.

Assessment Proportions

This module will be delivered through 20 lectures and 3 workshops.

There will be an introductory lecture and a ‘wrap-up/exam preparation’ lecture. The remaining lectures will be delivered in blocks of six lectures related to the three sub-disciplines: cultural geography, social geography, political geography. Each block has a workshop/seminar which will be delivered during its relevant weeks.

There will also be an independent guided walk in a local environment that will link to the photo-essay coursework (assessment 1). A support drop-in session will be held to prepare students for the exam assessment (assessment 2).

The seminar/workshops will support core academic content but will include skills development; focussing on how to engage and use academic literature (i.e., critical reading, critical writing); understanding the relation of conceptual material to empirical data and its description/representation; effective written communication (assessment 1 and 2).

LECX5120: Human Geography in Practice

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to prepare students to undertake independent research and produce a dissertation in human geography. The module will ensure students have a good understanding of the ways in which human geographers develop research questions, and the way in which research needs to be developed with a focus on research ethics. Students will be taught the fundamentals of research methods, alongside having opportunities to practice these methods in, and beyond, a classroom setting. We will also explore quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and carefully consider how research can be written up, particularly focusing on how to present research in the form of a dissertation.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Apply knowledge of quantitative and qualitative human geography research and data analysis methods practiced within and beyond the classroom.
2. Reflect on the challenges and benefits of different methods in human geography research.
3. Illustrate relationships between human geography methodology and the application of methods in the field.
4. Plan an ethically and empirically robust independent human geography research project.
5. Communicate fundamental elements of field work to a non-academic audience.

Outline Syllabus

This module builds on LECX4212 (or equivalent) by extending students’ understanding of the unique focus that a human geography lens can bring to researching societies and their environments. Students will broaden and deepen their knowledge of epistemology and ontology, particularly building insight into the way in which approaches to research are both personal and political, existing in a broader socio-cultural and historic context that has also shaped the discipline of geography as a whole. Students will develop their knowledge of both conventional and more contemporary approaches to research in human geography, with opportunities to practice and reflect on their own use of these methods. The course will cover both qualitative and quantitative methods, leading in to teaching and learning about qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyse data. The module will end with a focus on ‘writing up’, specifically with a chance for group work focusing on dissertations as a means of recording and reporting research. On completion of this module, students will have the necessary skills to complete methodologically and ethically sound independent research and write it up in the form of an undergraduate dissertation.

Assessment Proportions

The module will be assessed using two pieces of coursework.

• Students will complete a short and supported research project requiring them to demonstrate their learning on research design and implementation [MLO 2] including their understanding of research ethics [MLO 4], fieldwork and data analysis [MLO 1]. This piece of coursework will assess students’ understanding of the course material in an applied manner that is relevant to the purpose of the module.
• Students will produce an instructive piece of non-academic writing based on the applications of a method of their choice [ MLO 2, MLO 3] to non-academic research [MLO 5]. This piece of coursework will require students to demonstrate that they can apply their knowledge to communication beyond an academic audience. This will help to develop skills for employability.

LECX5121: Physical Geography in Practice

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Geography

Course Description

This module aims to give students the skills – and knowledge of how to use them – to be able to carry out research projects in Physical Geography. The skills element of this module will focus on statistical analysis of quantitative data, complementing the spatial data handling skills covered by LECX5222 (and the qualitative data handling skills covered by LECX5120 for those students that take both modules). It will pick up from the introductory quantitative skills in LECX4212 and feed primarily into the dissertation (LECX6000).

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Write physical geography research challenges in the form of aims and objectives, questions, hypotheses or otherwise
2. Explain the different approaches available for physical geography research (measurements, experiments, modelling etc.) and the circumstances under which each one would be appropriate
3. Collect and record (or download) datasets via different approaches and process them into formats ready for analysis
4. Carry out statistical analyses on datasets using appropriate software tools to address stated aims
5. Write scientific reports

Outline Syllabus

The module will start by considering different types of research challenges in Physical Geography and how they can be formulated as aims, questions, hypotheses or otherwise. It will introduce and explore different ways of addressing those challenges, including field measurements, laboratory analysis of field samples, field experiments, laboratory and computer modelling, and using data from archives and repositories. It will give students practice in obtaining and recording data in a variety of settings and then analysing that data using appropriate software and statistical techniques. Finally, the module will develop their scientific writing skills, enabling them to communicate their work effectively and appropriately.

Assessment Proportions

Support for learning and feedback from formative assessment will be built into the module mainly via the practical data collection and computer laboratory sessions, which will lead the class in an interactive way through tasks and questions. Interactivity will also be a significant element of the lecture theatre sessions, to provide feedback to students on their engagement with the MLO1 and MLO2 material. Summative assessment will again run roughly parallel with LECX5120, but provide variation in assessment mode. Thus, parallel to the LECX5120 research proposal, here students will take an end of module test that will assess their ability to identify research aims, formulate them as questions or hypotheses, identify appropriate methodological approaches etc. (MLOs 1 and 2). Parallel with the LECX5120 piece of non-academic writing, here students will be required to produce a scientific report on one of the data collection and analysis activities covered in the module, thus addressing MLOs 3-5.

LECX5126: Political and Economic Geography

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to empower students to understand and connect complex phenomena in global economic and political systems. It will do this by linking political and economic ideas and examples to make sense of contemporary political economy. For example, it will give students the confidence to explain themes relating to the distribution of political and economic power in society; how international institutions work; market formation and maintenance; multilateral and unilateral approaches to governance; the interplay of the public and private sectors; and activism and resistance. The module is future focused and encourages students to apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios. It also aims to give students the chance to develop key skills for employability, including teamwork and effective written and verbal communication, via an innovative group project assessment and the production of a podcast.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically evaluate key economic and political issues in current affairs and propose solutions.
2. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate and synthesise competing political and economic theories.
3. Undertake critical analysis of prevalent political and economic norms and propose alternatives.
4. Effectively translate and communicate political and economic phenomena to a non-specialist audience by producing a podcast.
5. Work independently and with others to deliver a reading diary that links political and economic theory.

Outline Syllabus

The contemporary world is full of intriguing political and economic developments. Both historic and contemporary crises of capitalism – from the uneven geographies of wealth, to the challenges of addressing the climate emergency – point to the ways in which economy and politics can’t be understood exclusively from one another. This module introduces and analyses key themes in both economic and political geography, such as international debt, resource nationalism, immigration, post-colonialism, border politics, financialisation and the politics of truth. For political geography this means a sustained engagement with themes relating to geopolitics, the nation state and to borders, conflict and resistance. For economic geography, this means understanding how economic organisation sets the grounds for, and interacts with, political engagements. We will also think about the challenges and opportunities for bringing economic and political geographies together. Students will develop skills that will help them make sense of and communicate the economic and political world around them; and understand important global phenomena from a geographical perspective.

Assessment Proportions

Teaching will be delivered via in-person lectures, seminars and workshops. In the lectures, students are introduced to key economic and political issues in current affairs (MLO 1). In the seminars, the students use the ‘jigsaw method’ to produce a group reading diary (MLO 5). The group reading diary is the first assessment (50%) and the students then individually produce a podcast (50%)and For the reading diary, each student produces an individual reading summary and collectively answer questions using the information in their summaries (MLO 3). All learning materials, including reading lists and Panopto recordings of the lectures, are provided on Moodle. Teaching staff are present in the sessions for one-on-one support and formative feedback. Students are individually marked for the reading diaries. In the final seminar, the students work together to propose solutions for global problems (MLO 1).

For the second assessment, the students produce a podcast on a topic of their choice, explaining political and economic geography concepts to a general audience (MLO 4).

LECX5127: Geography, Development and the Majority World

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Human Geography

Course Description

The module aims to provide students with a critical geographical understanding of International Development via an investigation of overlapping themes such as climate change adaptation, gender equality, rural development and food sovereignty movements, urban transformations and politics in the Majority World. It seeks to foster an understanding of development's historical roots in colonialism, analyze changing global geographies of inequality, and evaluate both mainstream development discourses and their contestations. The module also aims to train analytical, research, and communication skills necessary to critically engage with complex development issues across global spaces.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1. Situate Development and its evolution against the background of changing historical contexts, including in relation to colonialism, the Cold War, etc.
2. Examine, contrast and critically evaluate key theories of Development, with reference to underlying philosophical and political traditions.
3. Articulate the relationship between discourses / imaginaries / representations of Development, and material power relations and practices.
4. Examine the uneven impacts of development across societal groups (based on e.g. geographical location, gender, class, caste), with reference to contemporary challenges (e.g. poverty, climate change adaptation, gender inequality) and theories of development.
5. Examine and debate contestations to, resistances against and alternatives to Development, in particular in social movements in the Majority World.
6. Carry out simple desk-based research tasks drawing on peer-reviewed and grey literature.
7. Effectively communicate concepts, findings and arguments in written and oral form.

Outline Syllabus

The module comprises lectures and interactive workshops, and is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides an introduction to development historically and conceptually. Key definitions, theories and indicators of international development are explored, including perspectives challenging mainstream approaches. Workshops invite students to mobilise the perspectives introduced, investigating examples and themes via student-led activities. Part 2 explores specific issues and perspectives in international development (such as gender, climate change, rural development and food sovereignty movements, urban transformations and politics), and traces contemporary evolutions in development theory and practice (e.g. the changing role of States, the centrality of civil society actors, the growing dominance of market and financial mechanisms in developmental practice, calls to decolonize development theory and practice, changing geopolitical conditions, questioning of multi—lateral institutions, human rights frameworks and aid).

Assessment Proportions

The assessment consists of 100% coursework, divided into two parts: Part 1 (40%) is a 1000 word write-up related to weeks 1-5, building in particular on workshop activities and materials (MLOs 1,2,3,5,7). A set of detailed instructions is provided to guide students. Answers will be in short essay format and will include both theoretical elements and empirical examples/details taken from individual research, drawing on peer-reviewed readings and other materials. Part 2 (60%) will be a 2000 word write-up related to the second part of the module, expecting students to mobilise more independently the theories, perspectives and examples introduced in the module as a whole (MLOs 3,4,5,7), and comprising a more substantive element of independent research (MLO 6). The coursework assignment is individual (NOT group). Answers will be in essay format and will include both theoretical elements and empirical examples/details taken from independent research, drawing on peer-reviewed readings and other materials.

LECX5129: Glaciology

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Physical Geography

Course Description

This module aims to explore the fundamentals of Glaciology and the impact that ice masses have on the environment. We will study key glacial processes and glacial geomorphology, allowing students to interpret the forms and features found in the landscape during fieldwork in the Lake District. We will also explore the importance of ice masses on Earth through topics such as glacial hazards, resources, and pollutants, and contrast glacial activity on Earth with that across the solar system. Fieldwork will guide students how to interpret and document the landscape, and practical sessions will enable students to combine data collected in the field with other data obtained using GIS. Writing skills will be developed through the assessments, field skills during fieldwork in the Lake District, and research skills developed through the practicals and subsequent report write-up.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to…

1. Develop a fundamental understanding of glaciological processes.
2. Interpret the role of past and contemporary glacial activity in shaping landscapes and resources.
3. Collect data in the field that describes key glacial geomorphological landforms.
4. Supplement field-based datasets with secondary datasets obtained using GIS.
5. Conduct a research project using field-based data to reconstruct the past extent of glaciers in the Lake District.
6. Retrieve and critically evaluate glaciological literature on a range of topics.

Outline Syllabus

This module will explore the fundamentals of Glaciology, ranging from process-based knowledge of mass balance, glacial hydrology, and ice movement, to the impact that ice masses have on the landscape. Glacial geomorphology will be studied during fieldwork in the Lake District, guiding students how to interpret the forms and features found in the landscape to understand how glaciers (and subsequent processes) have shaped valley land systems. Field data will be analysed and supplemented (using secondary datasets and GIS) in practical sessions to develop an understanding of how we can use present-day landscapes to reconstruct past ice extent. The module will then examine the importance of ice masses on Earth, including glacial hazards, glacial meltwater as a resource, and how those glacial meltwater resources are being affected by anthropogenic pollutants. Finally, we contrast glacial activity on Earth with that across the solar system by considering evidence for extraterrestrial Planetary glaciation.

Assessment Proportions

Guided GIS practical sessions using ArcGIS Pro will allow students to supplement their field data with secondary datasets (MLO4) and reconstruct the past extent of glaciers in the visited valleys (MLO5), with full provided instructions and staff support allowing equitable and deep learning. Practicals will develop student skills in GIS, a highly valued graduate attribute, and be an opportunity for one-to-one learning and formative input prior to completing the assignment. The assignment will be a write-up of the field and practical work in the form of a report, allowing students to demonstrate and develop their glaciological understanding, data presentation, analysis, and written skills (MLOs 1 – 5).

LECX5222: Geographical Data Science

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  data and academic writing skills

Course Description

This module aims to equip students with the ability to think critically and creatively with spatial data in an increasingly data-rich world. Building on the foundational idea that digital representations can help us uncover patterns and insights within complexity, students will develop both practical and conceptual proficiency in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Emphasis will be placed on understanding how reality is translated to spatial information, and the consequences that can have for evidence-based decision-making across a range of sectors. Students will learn how to access, manipulate and interpret diverse socioeconomic, environmental, topographic and remotely sensed datasets, and how to communicate findings through effective visualisation tailored to different audiences. Through hands-on experience and critical reflection, the module fosters a deeper awareness of the power, limitations and ethical dimensions of spatial analysis, encouraging students to consider how geospatial technologies shape our understanding of people, places and planetary processes.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critique the quality of spatial data from a variety of sources.
2. Using the characteristics of spatial data, discuss the challenges of spatial data integration.
3. Use GIS software to capture and integrate geographic information from multiple sources.
4. Apply GIS tools to analyse and effectively present geographic information.
5. Discuss the increasing importance of spatial data in extending our knowledge of environmental and societal challenges.

Outline Syllabus

Learning to analyse and interpret spatial data with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a vital skill that supports decision-making across nearly every sector, and this module combines theoretical insight with hands-on GIS software skills. To address and act upon complex real-world problems, from climate change to resource management and social equity, it is important to know how spatial relationships can be queried, analysed, and visualized to support decision-making. The key to understanding which approach to take is based on an appreciation of how the real world has been simplified into a digital form. The course therefore starts by exploring how spatial data structure (vector and raster), map projections, and coordinate systems alter perceptions, and how data resolution, scale and generalization influence map accuracy and interpretation.

GIS skills are in high demand across a wide range of careers. From environmental consultancy and urban planning to public health, emergency response, and conservation, the ability to interpret and apply spatial data is increasingly essential. This course will give you exposure to data from many of these sectors, helping you understand how spatial analysis drives evidence-based decisions. A particular emphasis will be placed on satellite remote sensing—covering both passive and active systems—and how to extract actionable insights using spectral indices and image classification. As the course progresses, you’ll work with more advanced tools and be encouraged to critically evaluate data, identify meaningful differences, and understand where caution is required. You will develop not only practical proficiency with GIS software, but also the ability to assess the origins, limitations, and biases of spatial datasets—skills that are vital for any career involving data-driven problem solving and geographic insight.

Assessment Proportions

The goal for any GIS module is to blend theoretical understanding with applied hands-on experience. Students will engage with interactive lectures, with a strong focus on real-world case studies to explore spatial data concepts and tools. Throughout, there will be an emphasis on learning-by-doing, using practical lab sessions to familiarise themselves with industry-standard GIS software to solve spatial problems. Practical lab sessions will include regular points for reflection and self-assessment to build student’s confidence as formative tasks, while steadily reducing the detail of instruction provided for tasks already covered in previous weeks. This approach ensures students build technical competencies, spatial thinking, and critical reflection, preparing them to apply GIS effectively in diverse academic, professional, and policy-making contexts.

Students will be tested on their theoretical and practical understanding of spatial data analysis through a timed quiz delivered on Moodle (Assessment 1).

Over the course of the module the students will be introduced to an array of tools and tasks. Assessment 2 will be a guided GIS project for which students will need to apply several of those tools to generate both quantitative answers and visual outputs. The latter half of the project will include a review of the project results, as well as demonstration of the student’s critical understanding of data quality for the GIS application, as well as wider awareness of alternative data sources and approaches. The project is described as guided because the same data will be provided to all, and the minimum set of tasks needed will be defined by the project brief.

As part of their degree programme all LEC students will have been introduced to GIS software for the first time as part of ‘Foundation Skills for LEC’ (Level 4). The expectation is that students will have learnt how to explore and partially manipulate spatial data, and produce different visualisations, but they will not have received any further tuition in how to assess data quality, or methods for integration. This module therefore builds upon this introduction in which data is accepted “as is” and instead requires students to think further about what they aim “to do”, and data generation and analytical processes lead to a decision outcome.

LECX5224: Cultural and Social Geography

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to provide students with an advanced introduction to cultural geography and social geography, which are two major themes of contemporary human geography scholarship and essential offerings in a geography degree. Cultural geography studies culture from a geographical perspective while, at the same time, understanding space and the spatial from a cultural point of view. Social geography explores relations between space and society, including everyday life, how social groups interact and the spaces in which they live. The course focuses on the key cultural geographical concepts of landscape, place, space, mapping, and aesthetics, while building on social geographical issues like identity, exclusion and difference, introduced at Level 4. These concepts are then brought together with ideas that span both sub-disciplines, such as power, justice, history, memory, belonging and recognition. Throughout the course these concepts will be explained and discussed in relation to contemporary understandings of domains such as culture, economy, nature, art, mobilities, and home.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Explain and use key concepts of cultural and social geography, such as landscape, place, space, aesthetics, affect, belonging and identity.
2. Classify and criticize different theoretical traditions in cultural and social geography.
3. Summarize and respond to contemporary debates in cultural and social geography in relation to previous research traditions in these sub-disciplines.
4. Discuss the relevance of selected theoretical approaches from cultural and/or social geography to empirical illumination of specific important contemporary issues.
5. Provide an account of the layering of historical, local and global influences.

Outline Syllabus

The module consists of three core parts:

Section One: Introduction to Cultural Geography and Social Geography - History and Theory

Lectures explore the historical development of cultural and social geography as a (sub- or trans-) discipline, key cross-cutting theoretical concepts, such as non-representational theory and the role of power in culture and place.

Section Two: Core Themes in Cultural Geography

Turning to a more thematic approach, the second section of the course explores major issues and aspects of cultural geography, such as landscape, aesthetics, cartography and memory.

Section Three: Connections

The final section, and second half of the course, explores adjacent connections to cultural geography including social geography, creative geographies and art, and mobilities.

Assessment Proportions

The module is taught through a teaching strategy that is divided into two parallel strands, in order to provide optimal support for students on a module that is often an outlier in their education, as the most humanistic sub-discipline in geography (and in LEC more generally). The first strand consists of lectures with follow-up workshops for the whole cohort, giving students the opportunity to discuss or try practically for themselves various approaches of cultural and social geography, such as exercises, counter-mapping or debates. These sessions will engage with examples and diverse voices from around the world. The second strand is a programme of biweekly writing labs providing a process through which students are led, in smaller groups, to completion of their essay assignment by the end of the teaching period.

This learning and teaching strategy then aligns with the assessment strategy, which consists of: (1) an openly titled essay, encouraging students to identify a specific issue that they find particularly interesting from the extraordinary breadth of potential topics for cultural and social geography (supported by the writing lab process); and (2) a two-hour exam, for which the exam paper is provided to students one week in advance to encourage higher quality and more comprehensively argued ‘mini-essay’ answers. The exam asks students to answer two questions, one out of three options from two sections, largely covering themes 1 and themes 2 & 3 respectively. The essay thereby assesses depth of engagement with cultural and social geography through a focus of the student’s own choice, while the exam provides the complementary assessment of the breadth of engagement across the whole module.

LECX5225: Environmental Geography

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to build on foundational understanding developed in Level 4 on environmental geographies and provide a specialised route to Level 5 learning in this sub-discipline, focusing in particular on earth and marine environments. As well as providing more in-depth knowledge of environmental geography, the module will also develop an interdisciplinary understanding of key issues in environmental geography, such as how the environmental, social and political interact. Students will develop a range of skills including critical thinking and academic reading and writing.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Explain and provide examples of how the Earth and Sea, and their resources, are shaped by different social, geographical and historical contexts.
2. Critically discuss how controversies emerge out of competing claims on geological and marine resources, and evaluate a range of responses to these conflicts.
3. Apply key concepts from the Social Sciences and the Physical/Natural Sciences to make sense of particular challenges to social life and governance of these systems.
4. Demonstrate in writing the critical skills to bring together and evaluate different sources of information.

Outline Syllabus

This module examines environmental geographies using empirical examples from our evolving relationship with the Earth and the Sea. The module will build on key concepts introduced in Year 1, such as The Anthropocene and the role of non-western and indigenous knowledges, to think more critically about the role of governance structures and justice frameworks that shape how human societies interact with the natural world. Students will engage with global and local examples of environmental governance, the ethical dimensions of environmental justice, and the socio-political dynamics that influence issues of equity, access, and environmental rights. Though primarily a Human Geography module, we also explore the connections between human and physical geography and consider how themes and concepts from the Earth and Marine sciences can offer new perspectives on our social worlds.

Assessment Proportions

It will be delivered through lectures, workshops and a field trip to a local area. There will be an introductory lecture, a wrap up lecture and an exam revision session. The remaining lectures will be delivered in blocks of 6 lectures relating to; society's relationship with the earth (the Anthropocene), society’s relationship with marine environments and environmental governance. Themes of environmental justice and equity will run throughout all themes. Each block has a workshop attached to be delivered during its respective block. There will be a one-day fieldtrip that will link to the coursework essay. Students will relate concepts from the module to the real world by incorporating observations from their field trip to their coursework project (Assessment 1). All module learning outcomes will be further assessed through the module exam (Assessment 2) in essay format. Pedagogically the field trip provides the opportunity for experiential and active learning, as well as the skills in applying key concepts from the module in a real-world context. The workshops enable a student centred and active learning environment to supplement the passive knowledge provided through the lecture series. This gives the opportunity to deepen understanding through active discussions/debates, develop critical thinking and develop communication, public speaking/presenting and problem-solving skills. The exam is an important component both pedagogically and in relation to academic integrity.

LECX5228: Living with the Landscape

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  Geology

Course Description

This module aims to explore the dynamic relationships between natural and human processes in landscapes from uplands through lowlands to coastal zones. You will examine how water, sediment and nutrients flow across landscapes, how changes in land use and climate can impact these flows, and how disruptions to them can have cascading effects across space and time. You will consider how these interactions shape ecosystems and influence their health, resilience and services to humanity. The module will emphasise the importance of this understanding for developing sustainable land-use practices and natural resource management. Integrated approaches to landscape management will be explored through case studies addressing issues such as climate change adaptation, pollution control and flood risk mitigation.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Define the main biotic, abiotic and cultural processes and their interactions that are responsible for shaping the landscape.
2. Apply and evaluate key theoretical frameworks such as systems theory and the more-than-human approach to explain how abiotic, biotic, and cultural-historical processes interact across upland, lowland, and coastal landscapes.
3. Critically assess how land use and human interventions influence landscape processes such as flooding, nutrient cycling, and sediment transport at different spatial and temporal scales.
4. Apply quantitative data analysis tools and practical skills to analyse data from different sources and interpret landscape features as a result of interacting abiotic and biotic processes and human interventions.
5. Use field-based skills such as observation and mapping to describe landscape features.
6. Effectively communicate complex environmental issues in written and digital form, including producing a podcast for a public audience.
7. Reflect on sustainable and inclusive landscape management practices by drawing on global case studies, including indigenous practices and decolonial approaches, to evaluate alternative ways of living with landscapes.

Outline Syllabus

The management of natural resources and landscapes is recognised as a wicked problem. Current management approaches and policies are often fragmented, with conservation efforts usually focusing on either natural or cultural aspects. This overlooks the interconnected and dynamic nature of landscapes, which are shaped by long-term interactions between abiotic processes (e.g. geology, climate), biotic systems (e.g. ecosystems, species), and cultural-historical influences (e.g. agriculture, urbanisation) at different spatial and temporal scales.

Sustainable living with landscapes requires holistic, integrative thinking that recognises these interactions across spatial and temporal scales. This module focuses on the interactions between abiotic, biotic and cultural elements across three interconnected environmental zones: uplands and lake catchments, lowlands and river plains, and estuarine and coastal areas.

Building on the first-year module “Reading the landscapes”, the module introduces key theoretical frameworks, including systems theory, actor-network theory, and “more-than-human approaches” to account for both human and non-human actors in shaping landscapes.

The module starts with upland environments and focuses on geomorphic processes and the importance of these landscapes for water, sediment and nutrient sources and stores. The effects of the interactions between water, sediment and nutrients as well as land use changes on lake ecosystems, including eutrophication and acidification, are then examined.

Lowland landscapes are examined through riverine landscapes and wetlands. Topics such as riverscapes, biodiversity, habitat connectivity, and the effects of urbanisation and intensive agriculture on floods/droughts, water quality and ecosystems are addressed. Ecosystem services and the concept of "riverhood” are introduced.

The module concludes with estuarine and coastal systems, exploring tidal and wave-dominated environments and how the interaction between water, sediment transport and vegetation shape coastal landscapes such as coastal wetlands, deltas and dunes. It includes socio-economic aspects of coastal systems as well as resilience and adaptation to climate change in coastal areas.

A central theme is longitudinal connectivity from uplands to coast tracking water, sediment, and nutrient fluxes alongside past and future human interventions. Case studies from the North West of England will be examined alongside examples from other parts of the world, in particular indigenous landscape management practices, with attention to sustainability and decolonial perspectives.

Assessment Proportions

This module aims to promote an interdisciplinary and applied understanding of landscape systems through a combination of lectures, practical sessions, fieldwork and creative assessment.

It encourages students to think holistically about living sustainably with the landscape and to apply interdisciplinary approaches to environmental challenges. Students are introduced to theory, inquiry- and problem-based learning and critical reflection. A blended teaching strategy supports students to develop as active learners.

Students will participate in weekly 3-hour lectures that combine traditional lectures with interactive discussions and case study analyses. In these sessions key landscape concepts, systems approach, interactive processes between water, sediment and nutrients and human-induced changes are introduces and applied to real-world examples from uplands, lowlands, and coastal areas.

Mid-module, students will engage in a 3-hour practical session analysing environmental data spatially and temporally and develop analytical skills for interpreting landscape processes.

The final weeks are dedicated to field trips to the uplands, lowlands and coastal environments of the North West England. These field trips are designed to give students first-hand experience of the connectivity of landscapes and the impact of human interventions such as land-use change, water management, and climate adaptation practices.

The assessment is designed to encourage critical thinking, communication skills, team and individual contributions to the assessment. Students will work in a group to produce a podcast on flooding that focuses on how land use in upland and lowland areas affects flood risk. This format supports the development of digital communication skills and public engagement with environmental issues. A second assessment is an individual written report examining water, sediment and nutrient pathways across the three environmental zones and how a human activity alters these processes. This analysis should inform a proposal for sustainable management.

Formative assessment will be provided through short online quizzes after each section of the course (uplands, lowlands, coasts), enabling students to consolidate their knowledge and receive timely feedback.

LECX6104: Eco-Innovation for Sustainable Development

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to explore how eco-innovation – the development of new products, processes or services that drive business growth while benefitting the environment – can advance sustainable development.

The module critically examines the concept of eco-innovation and related sustainability concepts. The complexity of global environmental and social problems are considered and the challenges associated with developing truly sustainable innovations investigated.

This module is offered as part of the degree programme because it offers an opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills needed to turn environmental understanding into effective action for a sustainable, prosperous world. It prepares graduates for further study or careers in the growing sustainable business sector, as well as related roles in policy and the third sector.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of eco-innovation, classifying innovations according to key concepts.
2. Critically appraise the efficacy of eco-innovations in delivering sustainable development.
3. Synthesise environmental, social, and economic information from a wide variety of sources to define a problem in the context of sustainable development.
4. Apply business model concepts coherently to help generate a viable eco-innovative idea.
5. Develop a professional business proposal for an eco-innovation.
6. Work effectively as part of a team.

Outline Syllabus

Eco-innovation is?the development of products, services, practices, and processes that support sustainable development. It is where business knowledge is combined with a mission to improve environmental and social conditions. Eco-innovation is needed in every sector to tackle climate change, stem biodiversity loss, help clean our air, soils and waterways, and deliver a fairer society. It is also increasingly seen as a business opportunity with the potential to reduce costs, increase competitiveness, access new customer segments, attract high quality staff, and do good in the world.

Having a good idea for a new environmentally and socially positive product or service is clearly a key ingredient, but how can someone ensure that their idea truly delivers to sustainability and avoids unintended consequences? How can they then turn the idea into something that will work as a successful profit-making or not-for-profit business, providing customers with a valuable product or service, whilst ensuring that the initiative is viable?

These are just some of the fundamental questions that will be examined in the module, using a mix of lectures, interactive workshops, and both team-based and individual assignments.

The lectures will address key concepts in eco-innovation and sustainability, address problem formulation and solving, and business model theory – all enriched with real-life examples and voices. In the workshops, students will work in small groups on focused tasks that form a path to the development of their own eco-innovative proposal.

By the end of the module, students will have developed a rich and critical understanding of eco-innovation and its role in sustainable development, along with practical skills and increased confidence to help drive positive sustainable change in the real world.

Assessment Proportions

Given the relevance of sustainable development to a broad range of LEC programmes and the complexity of environmental-social systems, this module has been designed to be interdisciplinary in its content and cohort:

• It brings together thinking and methods from environmental and social sustainability, business, and systems thinking disciplines to critically set out the key concept eco-innovation and pathways towards it.
• It draws in students across all programmes in LEC, allowing us to create diverse teams of students with varied knowledge and skills. This gives students experience of working with others and combining strengths to address a complex challenge.
• Interdisciplinary material is introduced in lectures that combine key concepts with real-world case studies (supported by online resources and lecture recordings hosted on moodle to enhance accessibility and inclusion).
• Each lecture is followed by an interactive workshop that implements and builds on learning from each lecture. The students work in small teams during the workshops, supported by an expert mentor from our business enterprise team that has environmental business/innovation knowledge.
• At various points in lectures and workshops, practitioners are brought in to share their first-hand experience and insights helping to enrich the student’s knowledge of eco-innovation and refine their ideas. This also exposes the students to potential future careers and gives them an opportunity to interact with professionals.
• With an awareness of decolonisation, we take care to include case studies and voices from a diversity of socioeconomic and cultural contexts, including the global south.

Assessment consists of:

• An eco-innovation poster (40%), where an eco-innovation is engagingly described, categorised and critically evaluated. This is an individual piece of coursework. It will be shared in a poster session, giving students an opportunity to learn from and practice communicating with peers.
• An eco-innovation pitch (formative), where groups communicate their eco-innovation proposal and associated business plan to a professional audience. Written and oral formative feedback is given by the panel and peers.
• A written eco-innovation proposal and business plan (60%), detailing the scope and nature of the group’s chosen problem, their proposed eco-innovation, and how it addresses the problem, alongside a detailed plan for implementation drawing on business model concepts. This is a group piece of coursework, where the group will reflect on contributions across the team to allocate marks.

The whole module strongly supports the development of graduate attributes relating to skilled and ethical problem-solving, professional communications, leadership and teamworking, and awareness of sustainability.

LECX6131: Creative Geographies: Place, Space and the Geographies of Imagination

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Human Geography

Course Description

This module will provide an advanced introduction to the geographies of creative thought and practice, a newly emerging focus in contemporary geographic scholarship. It will do this by:

• Exploring the relation between art, space and critical thought.
• Practicing place-based creative methodologies.

The module thus provides students with an understanding of key concepts and processes that connect the critical and creative imagination.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse and interpret an aesthetic form/creative practice (e.g., the visual arts, film, music, architecture, narrative fiction, poetry) in relation to their spatial and theoretical/conceptual dimensions.
2. Assess the connection between the experience of place and its imaginative or creative expression.
3. Utilize an interdisciplinary approach to human geography to compose writing beyond the boundaries of the academic.

Outline Syllabus

This module will guide students through the intricate relationship between geography, philosophy, politics, and art (across various media). It emphasises how certain kinds of places inspire specific modes of intellectual thought and creative practice. Among the questions it explores are: Why and how do certain forms of art and aesthetic expression arise in specific times and in specific places? What difference does that place (or places) make to their thought and expression? Further, how can we understand the ways that certain art objects and aesthetic practices be read spatially and politically?

Assessment Proportions

This module will be delivered through lectures, workshops and a guided creative writing fieldtrip. There will be an introductory lecture to introduce students to the key aims and challenges of the module as well as to the value of interdisciplinary scholarship, specifically as this obtains between the social sciences and the arts and humanities. There will also be a wrap-up lecture at the end of the module to further emphasise the linkages between critical geographic thought and creative practice.

The first section of the module will focus on the module’s theoretical and conceptual content and instantiate these via close readings of key texts and detailed case studies. This section will be assessed via a coursework academic essay. Students will choose their own essay topics after discussing it with the module convenor as well as with a small group of their peers. A lecture and a workshop will provide students with clear guidelines and preparatory support. For this assignment, students will be encouraged to be as creative and imaginative as possible in their choice of topic but will be required to:

• Offer a clear rationale for their choice of topic.
• Have read widely across a range of literatures.
• Integrate their analytic/conceptual and empirical material.

The second part of the module will focus on the inter-relations of academic geography and creative writing. Specifically, it highlights the process, practice and product of writing as a means of exploring and reflecting upon geographical themes and ideas (i.e., perceptions of landscapes, identities, bodies, memories, and senses of place). It will involve a guided fieldwork session and i workshop and will be assessed via a piece of creative writing and reflection. Students will be encouraged to be as experimental and expansive in their choice of literary genre (i.e., poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction, biography/memoir, travel-writing) but will be required to:

• Reflect on the relations between academic and non-academic modes of expression.
• Understand creative writing as an alternative mode of geographic enquiry.
• Appreciate creative writing as a specific tool for communication and research method.

LECX6136: Food and Agriculture in the 21st Century

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS credits 
• Pre-requisites: A-Level/high school equivalent Geography 

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Give students an understanding of the structure and historical development of the global food system
• Give students a comprehensive introduction to the social, economic and environmental issues impacting food systems
• Give students the knowledge and skills to critically evaluate different proposed solutions to food systems crisis
• Give students the knowledge and skills to reflect on how their own dietary choices link to culture, environment and economy

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Judge and apply coherent and detailed knowledge of contemporary food and agricultural systems, which is informed by prior understandings of critical human geography.
2. Critically evaluate academic literature and phenomena in global food systems and link this to everyday experience.
3. Apply social scientific methods and techniques to review, consolidate, extend and apply knowledge and understanding of global food systems to reflect on personal experience and practices.
4. Synthesise information and make informed judgements by critically evaluating and applying appropriate concepts, arguments, and issues, supported by evidence, and present findings in an appropriate academic format.
5. Demonstrate complex and conceptually challenging subject specific knowledge, and a critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights.
6. Reflect on one’s positionality as a knowledge producer and participant in global society.

Outline Syllabus

This module covers the political, social, economic and environmental aspects of the contemporary food system. Students will learn how food is produced, allocated and distributed in global supply chains, and the historical foundations of this organisation, covering topics such as commodity markets, the Green Revolution, trade and colonialism. Students will learn and evaluate key theories of food system change, such as food security and food sovereignty, and identify important actors and institutions in making decisions about what we eat, and how. Students will then look to the future, and think about how an equitable, ecological food system could be designed.

Assessment Proportions

Students are taught in thematic blocks, allowing sessions to go into depth. Each block will have a live lecture (recorded on Panopto) and a discussion seminar followed by a workshop. Each topic is thus delivered through a variety of forms: transmission; discussion and practical activities. Students will have readings for each topic that are available on Moodle, along with clear explication of the structure. There is a formative assessment (a practice essay) and a summative assessment: an essay in which students apply module knowledge to consider their own positionality and practices in the food system, to support their development as ethical researchers and problem-solvers, able to handle complexity and ambiguity, and their consciousness of the importance of economic, social and environmental sustainability and the impact of their own actions on others in the global and local community. The formative essay is because the course is interdisciplinary and will provide students from different backgrounds, where social science essays are less common, to practice the essay form. Most students are also unfamiliar with a reflective essay format, so this will improve confidence and allow the whole cohort to practice. There is one field course to visit a local food producer, integrating their learning with local community wellbeing and activities.

LECX6137: Political Ecology

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS credits 
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Human Geography 

Course Description

This module has two closely related aims. The first is to introduce students to the field of political ecology and the discipline’s approach to thinking about some of the most pressing social and ecological challenges that the world faces today. Second, to give students the skills and expertise they need to critically analyse social and ecological processes with reference to cutting-edge theories and debates in political ecology. Taken together, these aims will empower students to think critically about how they can make a positive difference in the world, while sharpening their skills in academic writing, research, and critical analysis.

The module is structured as a series of engagements with everyday items and commodities such as smartphones, tea and coffee, meat and dairy, and electric vehicles. Beginning with the observations that none of these items are purely ‘natural’ or ‘social’ but rather a complex combination of human labour and extra-human nature, students are encouraged to think critically about the social and ecological relations, structures of power, and potential injustices entailed in each item. To develop skills to think critically about these items and resources, students will be introduced to leading theories in political ecology including feminism, decolonialism, degrowth, and Marxism. Students will also think together about how to unravel forms of exploitation, domination, and ecological degradation that contribute to the production and consumption of each of the items we scrutinise.

The module also aims to improve students’ capacity to develop well-reasoned and well-constructed arguments through critical analysis of academic and non-academic sources, and their ability to interpret and synthesise complex evidence. Students will also be encouraged to reflect on their own learning processes and outcomes.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Summarise major theoretical approaches in contemporary political ecology, such as feminism, decolonialism, and degrowth.
2. Use these theories to critically analyse some of the world’s most pressing social and ecological challenges, including decarbonisation, expanding resource throughputs, and the exploitation of racialised and gendered labour.
3. Identify, analyse and interpret conceptually salient issues in the field of political ecology, engaging with case studies.
4. Carry out desk-based research and gather data by identifying relevant academic, peer-reviewed and non-academic literature.
5. Articulate reasoned arguments by evaluating, interpreting and providing a critique of complex evidence.
6. Critically reflect on their own learning process and outcomes and gain a greater understanding of their own place in the world, including their positionality as students and knowledge producers, and how they can make positive changes to the world.

Outline Syllabus

The modern world is defined by unprecedented social and ecological crises: global heating, biodiversity decline, mounting economic inequality, and the wicked problem of decarbonising society justly and equitably. Political ecology approaches these challenges head-on, asking how they were produced, by who, why, and with what effects. This module will introduce students to the field of political ecology, and to some of its most influential conceptual approaches (degrowth, feminism, anti-colonialism, and more). Together, we will ask and answer questions such as: What is climate justice? Why is it so difficult to decarbonise the global economy? And how do items we use every day — from mobile phones, to coffee, and electric cars — impact peoples, animals, and environments near and far? Students will learn to think critically about the world they live in, to reflect on the implications of social and economic policy, and consider how climate justice might be attained.

Assessment Proportions

The module will be delivered via a combination of lectures and workshops. The module is organised as a deep engagement with household items, commodities, or resources (eg coffee, meat, cell phones, electric vehicles), aspects of which will be critically interrogated from several theoretical and empirical perspectives in lectures. Learning from these lectures will be consolidated in a related workshop, where students will debate and discuss some of the questions raised in the lectures, critically appraise related academic literature and other medias, engage in role-playing activities, and reflect on their own learning processes.

Students are expected to write 500-word annotated bibliographies and a self-reflexive log after each lecture and workshop. They will be assessed on the submission of three of these, and on a standard format academic essay submitted in week 15. Students will be given a set of 5 questions to choose from, relating to themes, concepts, and issues covered during the module.

LECX6138: Spatial Data Analysis

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS credits 
• Pre-requisites: Intermediate (Year 2) spatial analysis or GIS

Course Description

This module aims to further enhance students' ability in Geographical Information System (GIS) software to design, capture, and store spatial data and independently perform advanced forms of spatial analysis to investigate environmental and societal challenges. Students will become critically aware of the strengths and weakness of different analytical approaches, and the importance of reporting outcomes in a robust and rigorous manner, understanding the importance these approaches have to society.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critique the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to spatial data analysis.
2. Discuss the societal impacts of geospatial technologies.
3. Formulate spatial queries and conduct advanced forms of spatial analysis.
4. Construct custom GIS workflows to model geospatial processes.
5. Design and execute an independent GIS-based research project addressing a contemporary issue.
6. Report results professionally and demonstrate advanced critical interpretation of analytical outcomes.

Outline Syllabus

It has been estimated that over 80% of data has a spatial component, requiring the use of specialist software to manage both the geographical properties of these data and their associated characteristics. Once incorporated within a Geographical Information System (GIS) these data can be analysed using a toolbox of specialist techniques, depending on the characteristics of the data, or combined in novel ways to reveal spatial patterns and relationships. Through advanced forms of spatial analysis we can gain critical insights into the way the world works, and how this may respond to change, which we can model using single or multiple layers of geographical information.

In this module we introduce the concepts behind some of the more advanced forms of spatial analysis including change detection, network analysis, map overlay and spatial prediction, and examine how these can be used to explore pressing societal and environmental issues. We demonstrate how these concepts are implemented within software and code through a series of linked practical sessions which students are encouraged to work through at their own pace, with opportunities to explore additional functionality as appropriate. At the end of the module we explore graduate-level opportunities in the GIS sector with the help of external speakers with significant experience of recruitment in this area.

The module is assessed by coursework only, including a video presentation on the application of spatial analysis techniques for a contemporary issue of the students’ own choice and an independent GIS project.

Assessment Proportions

This module is taught through a series of lectures and linked-practical sessions, giving students the opportunity to connect concepts and theories to areas of practical application through significant hands-on experience culminating in an individual GIS project.

Assessment 1 (30%) gives the students the opportunity to critique the strengths and weaknesses of using different forms of spatial analysis to address a contemporary issue of their own choice. The submission will take the form of a video recording summarising context, approach and outcome for the issue of choice, based on critical interpretation of the wider academic literature. This develops broader programme learning outcomes including developing and presenting well-reasoned arguments supported by evidence, synthesising theoretical concepts and applying them to specific case studies and communicating research findings clearly in graphical and oral form.

Assessment 2 (70%) gives the students the opportunity to complete an independent GIS project on a topic of their own choice and encompasses all aspects of the geographical problem solving cycle. Having defined their problem they are required to source appropriate spatial data, conduct appropriate spatial analysis, critically reflect on the robustness of their analysis and report the results professionally through technical writing and high quality illustration.

Students will be offered formative feedback on presentation topics prior to deliver of assessment 1 and introduced to project-based assessment 2 through a lecture with opportunities for formative feedback on project ideas in the following laboratory session, and subsequently online through moodle.

LECX6232: Geographies of Transformation in the Global South

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Introductory (Year 1) Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to explore the economic, historical and political geography of the Global South in its diversity, socio-economic and cultural assets, and some of the opportunities and challenges that its people face in the 21st century. Drawing on examples from regions such as Africa, Latin America, the Caribbeans and/or Asia, the module will explore the geographies of transformation in the Global South from multiple perspectives. Students will learn about commonalities and differences across different regions of the Global South, departing from a shared history tied to colonialism, through the struggle and contestations over governance and ‘development’, shifting political ‘core’ vs ‘periphery’ lexicon, to more contemporary affairs. The module will be offered as part of geography programmes across specializations; students will need to have taken the module Global Human Geography in year 1 which provides foundational knowledge of human geography and development in its broadest sense. Through this module, they will be able to develop written, verbal, and teamworking abilities in defining a development-related problem, and developing and supporting an argument related to historical and contemporary processes as they occurred in regions that are often deemed peripheral to development practice and discourse.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Identify the historical roots behind the emergence of the Global South in political discourse and current development trajectories.
2. Apply learning from the themes to examples from different regions of the Global South, researched independently.
3. Appreciate, evaluate, and compare the dynamics and forces shaping lives and experiences today in the Global South.
4. Write concisely and critically on the module topics, using reasoned and well-supported arguments using a range of academic and non-academic sources (blogs, video, reports, news) related to development issues in the Global South.
5. Effectively communicate relevant ideas and concepts related to the module and its topics through group discussion.

Outline Syllabus

Three key themes will run through the module to investigate and evaluate transformations in the Global South. These are:

1. Transformations are complex: we will depart from the premise that transformations are never unidirectional but can occur as tensions, conflict or contradictions. Transformations rarely happen as intended, can be unpredictable, and (can) lead to unintended outcomes

2. Place and context matter: We aim to understand contemporary trends and challenges in regions of the Global South by placing these in spatial, economic and historical contexts, considering similarities and differences across regions.

3. Globalisation and localisation: We consider the various ways in which transformations happen across scales, between the local and the global, and the effects these multi-faceted processes have on the ground, determining trajectories of development and growth.

Through the lens of these three themes, we will analyse transformations related to a range of topics that may include natural resources management, climate change adaptation, the role of the state and/or other regional and global institutional actors, rural and urban change, and (economic) growth, tracking historical continuity and change, to contemporary times.

We will anchor the topics and themes discussed to empirical case studies from different regions for students to progressively develop an understanding of geographical diversity, and learn to appreciate the hidden voices and agencies of actors from the Global South in shaping their own development and growth trajectories. Students will be able to make meaningful connections between the themes and topics of the module, and the current decolonisation agenda LU is spearheading. The module will aid students towards key Graduate Attributes, such as handling complexity and ambiguity (Academic Excellence), developing skills in teamwork, leadership and communication (Professional Excellence), and operating in a range of different cultural contexts (Global Citizenship).

Assessment Proportions

This module will be delivered through weekly lectures and seminars. Weekly lectures introduce the module topics that students integrate with independent reading and research by drawing on academic sources (books, chapters, articles). Students will also draw on non-academic sources (blog posts, news, reports, videos) to consider a wide range of diverse voices from the Global South, while tracking the themes of the module and preparing for the face-to-face seminars. The seminars involve structured tasks and will provide space for students to a) discuss and analyse critical debates related to history and current affairs in the Global South, b) express their knowledge and understanding of the week’s topic in relation to key subject areas in Human Geography (economic, social, cultural) in small group discussion, c) present own work, prepared individually or in groups and d) engage with the ideas and concepts related to historical and ongoing transformation in the Global South.

For each week of the module, materials will be posted on Moodle to be easily accessible by all students. These will include ppt slides (prepared with attention to accessibility scores) delivered through in-person lecture, panopto lecture recordings, and links to readings and web-based materials. Seminars will be structured to account for barriers to learning by developing inclusive formats that enable participation of all students with the aid of educational technology and tools (e.g. padlet and similar tools) for students to post their contributions, ideas, and findings from independent research. Seminar will provide space for peers’ and instructor's formative feedback on work presented by students (e.g. on structure, content etc..).

Assessment:

• A Blog Post (40%, 800 words) centred around a current theme of the student's choice relevant to ongoing transformations in the Global South (economic, social, cultural, political).
• An independent essay (60%, 2,000 words) that will need to demonstrate the student’s writing skills and abilities to construct an argument and/or critically reflect on one or a number of interrelated issues relevant to the module’s topic(s).

LECX6233: Health Geographies

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to critically examine inequalities in health and healthcare from a geographical perspective. Drawing on theoretical insights and empirical evidence from classic and cutting-edge research in Health Geographies, students will develop advanced understanding of concepts, methods and analysis. Key concepts include justice theory and rights, the political economy of health (power, politics and policy) and the biopolitics of life and anthropological contributions to understanding health inequities (e.g. violence in everyday life). Teaching will draw on evidence and case studies from the Global North and South and include findings from field-research conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. This module is designed to first build a solid understanding of inequalities (global, regional, in health, social and economic facets of life) and then go in-depth into four cutting-edge, specialist areas of health geography and related disciplines such as mental health; malnutrition; health and climate change.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Integrate and critically apply knowledge of concepts and approaches from a range of social science and health disciplines to evaluate health and health inequalities.
2. Analyse the structural basis (related to power) of social, economic and health inequalities.
3. Critically review Health Geographies as a fast-moving, plural and contested sub-field.
4. Critically synthesise the merits and weaknesses of qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches to health research.

Outline Syllabus

Health and healthcare are central to living a good life yet huge inequalities can be seen, whether locally to Lancaster in the North-West of England or in the Global South. In this module, students will gain an in-depth understanding of the concepts, methods and applications of Health Geographies. Geographers and scholars from related disciplines have made important contributions to defining these inequalities as ethically unacceptable, and providing insights into their causes (political, social, economic and environmental). Geographical thought and research also provides useful tools for developing and critically analysing appropriate policy responses to tackling these inequities. Following an introduction to the diverse geographies of health we then use lectures and seminars to explore health inequities in depth, taking a justice perspective as our starting point. We examine the social and economic determinants of health and disease in the Global North and Global South and examine the role of public health interventions. Then we overview the geographies of healthcare worldwide and in-depth for the UK. Subsequently, we apply the theories and approaches covered to four important and exciting frontiers in health geography. These draw on critical works in medical anthropology (health and power); human geography (mental health, space and place); a global health priority - the persistent and emerging nutritional changes facing children in the 21st century; inter-disciplinary environmental sciences (albeit we adopt a more critical perspective on understanding the health impacts of climate change). The final week will be dedicated to module synthesis.

Assessment Proportions

This module adopts a research-led, student centred, teaching approach to understand health inequities. Learning is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminar/workshops, the latter to pursue deep learning of the concepts taught in the lectures. Lectures will overview key concepts related to each topic and introduce notable academic work (a combination of classic and cutting-edge), drawing on a range of research methods. Lecture material can be revisited through Panopto recordings and further developed through diverse learning materials provided on Leganto. Seminar/workshops will use small group work, guided discussion tasks and debates (centred on an academic paper or real-world policy conundrum) to encourage critical engagement with the lecture content.

Students will be supported in independent study through curated reading lists, access to primary literature, and a diversity of additional material, such as videos, podcasts, documentaries, and blogs. This will build awareness of, and engagement with, diverse forms of communication, and will be built upon through the coursework essay.

Through lecture-specific content on health and power, and emphasis on politics, policies and power throughout the module’s lectures and workshops, students will develop a political economic understanding of health inequities.

The exam will consist of three essay questions, from which the student will choose one to answer. The questions will be designed to draw from both the core concepts introduced in the module, and draw on their own outside reading of policy case studies and academic publications.

By the end of the module, students will have developed a critical understanding of the contributions of diverse methodological approaches to understanding health and health inequities.

LECX6234: Challenging Cities in the 21st Century

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Introductory  (Year 1)  Human Geography

Course Description

This module aims to introduce students to advanced discussions regarding the changing nature and definition of ‘cities’ in the 21st century. The module focuses on the promises, potentials and problems of urban life as they co-evolve with multiple complex and diverse challenges, across issues of technology, society, politics and environment. Cities are now home to the majority of the global population, and key sites of human action regarding unprecedented challenges to humanity. At the same time, critical scholarship on cities is reconceptualizing the ‘city’ and ‘urban’, with the emergence of nuanced debates on infrastructure, technology, and the ‘science of cities’. This course provides an opportunity for advanced undergraduates to become well-versed in this crucial set of contemporary developments in human geography.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Critically appraise the ongoing historical process of transition from the ‘integrated ideal’ to forms of ‘splintered urbanism’ and how this has continued to evolve in recent years and in regions beyond the Global North.
2. Select and analyze case studies that illustrate the ongoing processes of socio-technical transition across a range of urban infrastructures (water, sanitation, waster, energy, transport, telecommunications).
3. Differentiate contemporary challenges facing different sorts of cities and infrastructures, across a range of global examples.
4. Critically appraise novel theoretical and conceptual lenses regarding relations between cities, infrastructures, technologies and society.
5. Integrate theoretical and empirical insights in order to propose alternative practical interventions to contemporary urban/infrastructural challenges.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores how cities are changing in the 21st century as they evolve alongside and in response to multiple unprecedented challenges across a range of issues: technological, social and natural. Cities and urban infrastructures are both a highly informative lens on these issues, and key sites for action in response to them. The module will thus open up the question of ‘what is the city, and/or urban infrastructure, in the 21st century?’ as we become an increasingly urban species, as well as crucial follow-up questions such as ‘what has been done to date (explaining the current form and issues of cities)?’, ‘what needs challenging and changing in this regard?’ and ‘what can be done about these issues?’ The module thus offers historical reconstruction of how cities and urban infrastructures have come to be conceptualized and governed in the way they currently are, as well as prospective discussion of how these issues are now changing, including exploring the role that ‘disruption’ and ‘crisis’ can play in revealing the hidden, taken for granted, logics of city governance and infrastructure management.

The module will explore these questions with sessions that focus specifically on issues of technological change (e.g. ‘smart cities’, digitalization, AI-fication), social issues (inequality, politics, governance, political economy, labour, consumption, culture) and socio-natural environment (place, sustainability, resilience), and, where possible, their interconnection. The course will also draw on examples from across the world, including the Global South, where the fastest processes of urbanization are now concentrated, bringing a diversity of voices and perspectives into the discussion. Together, these investigations will introduce students to cutting-edge retheorization of cities and urban infrastructures, including as sociotechnical assemblages and/or complex systems.

Assessment Proportions

The changing nature of cities and urban infrastructures is both a theoretically challenging and empirically rich and diverse issue. The learning and teaching strategy of this module reflects this learning challenge, bringing together elements of both deep conceptual exploration and multiple case study examples, both written and in direct first-hand experience. Introduction to the crucial theoretical advances now unfolding regarding cities and infrastructures occurs in the series of lectures, which also explore their ongoing redefinition across three major themes: technology, society and nature. Students are also encouraged to engage for themselves with these theoretical advances through a workshop towards the end of the course, applying the theories to a set of examples and compiling a poster to be presented to the class (formative assessment). Equally crucial, though, is investigation of real-world examples. This is done in three ways. First, a field trip explores a live example of urban and infrastructural challenges. Secondly, a series of seminars (in small groups to assist discussion amongst students and with staff) explores examples through specific readings.

This teaching and learning strategy is complemented by the summative assessment strategy, which consists of two items. First, students construct a ‘blog’/web-targeted news piece (1500 words, 30%) reflecting on their experience and lessons from the field trip. This also thereby offers relatively early direct engagement with the issues being discussed in the classroom, and provides early feedback before the second, and major, assessment: an essay (2500 words, 70%) exploring the challenges of changing cities and infrastructures through an example of their own choosing from anywhere in the world.

LECX6239: Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: A Level/high school equivalent Science

Course Description

This module aims to provide insight into Earth's Cryosphere as part of an integrated system. It teaches cryospheric processes through exemplar cutting-edge research, thus ensuring you are equipped with a deep and critical knowledge of the discipline. We address the taught content in a structured fashion. We aim to guide you through the physical processes that govern the behaviour of ice masses today; the profound implications that the Cryosphere holds upon downstream environments (ecology, ocean and climate); and the methods behind the science of the cryosphere (in the field, the computer lab and remotely from space). As students, we aim for you to use knowledge gained throughout the lecture series and home study to discuss and analyse key concepts in-depth (via tutor-led discussion groups). In practical classes you will learn how to analyse, interpret and present complex data. You will become proficient at writing cogently and critically, using numerical modelling approaches, and resolving complex datasets, all of which help to equip you with relevant skills for future graduate level opportunities. The module aims to provide a balance of guided and independent learning to ultimately allow students to demonstrate a critical understanding of cryospheric processes in the context of climatic change, informed by the forefront of research in the discipline.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically assess contemporary global issues in cryospheric science based on lecture, seminar and practical learning.
2. Demonstrate a systematic understanding of key topics in cryospheric science, informed by the forefront of research in the discipline, instilled through research-led teaching.
3. Retrieve, synthesise and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources to develop an informed opinion on key cryospheric issues.
4. Conduct data analysis techniques to formulate scientific conclusions from large datasets.
5. Execute and report an independent research project based on model outputs or provided datasets to demonstrate process level understanding.
6. Write cogently and critically about key issues in cryospheric science, whilst demonstrating academic integrity throughout.

Outline Syllabus

We begin by considering the current state of the cryosphere, drawing on prior learning, ensuring everyone has the necessary foundations for a structured and progressive learning experience throughout the remainder of the course. We then progress to studying the physical processes that govern the behaviour of ice masses today, from the production of meltwater through to its impact on ice motion. The profound implications of the cryosphere upon downstream environments will be explored, and by considering glaciers as ecosystems, we will link our ever-changing ice masses to ecological processes, sea-level dynamics, volcanic activity and climate feedbacks. Finally, we will consider how current research is conducted in the Cryosphere, through examples of fieldwork (e.g., using ice cores to place the unprecedented climates of the present into the context of the past), remote sensing (e.g., observing change over vast regions), and modelling (e.g., to project how ice masses will respond to the changing climate).

Assessment Proportions

The mode of teaching delivery uses a mixed approach of direct and independent learning to ensure accessibility of information pertaining to issues in cryospheric science to all students. The learning experience is scaffolded around a core lecture series. Lectures build on prior experience to ensure an equitable foundation of knowledge for all students to progress from. Deep learning opportunities delivered via seminars and practical classes build coherently from the lectures. Each of the guided deep learning opportunities provides an opportunity to cover the core lecture topics in a more independent fashion. Seminars provide the opportunity for directed reading of contemporary research articles drawn from a wide range of voices within the field, with subsequent small group discussion forums used to elicit informed opinions on key cryospheric issues. Practical classes provide the opportunity for problem solving via numerical analysis, computer modelling and spatial analysis (GIS/remote sensing) of large datasets. The coursework assessment (research project) builds from one of the practical sessions (choice to undertake one of four possible projects, each linked to one of the four practicals). This level of choice within the coursework assessment ensures an inclusive learning environment, with each of the associated practicals serving as a formative learning opportunity prior to completing the coursework task. Drop-in support sessions provide further formative learning opportunities. A summative exam delivered at the end of the module affords the opportunity for students to demonstrate they can write cogently and critically about key issues in cryospheric science, whilst demonstrating academic integrity throughout.

Collectively, this teaching and assessment strategy represents a carefully curated and equitable learning experience with opportunity afforded for depth and independence of study throughout.

LECX7112: Approaches to Political Ecology

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credit
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

LECX7122: Eco-innovation for Sustainable Development

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Cannot take with LECX6104

Course Description

This module aims to explore how eco-innovation – the development of new products, processes or services that drive business growth while benefitting the environment – can advance sustainable development. The module critically examines the concept of eco-innovation and related sustainability concepts. The complexity of global environmental and social problems are considered and the challenges associated with developing truly sustainable innovations investigated. Supported by a mix of lectures and interactive workshops with insights from real-world practitioners, students will work in small teams to identify a real sustainability issue and develop their own eco-innovation proposal to address it. This hands-on approach will foster a deep appreciation of the intersection between sustainability and innovation, whilst developing practical transferable skills in team working, problem analysis and framing, and professional communication. This module is offered as part of the degree programme because it offers an opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills needed to turn environmental understanding into effective action for a sustainable, prosperous world. It prepares students for careers in the growing sustainable business sector, as well as related roles in policy and the third sector.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the forefront of eco-innovation, classifying and comparing innovations according to key concepts.
2. Critically appraise the efficacy of eco-innovations in delivering sustainable development.
3. Synthesise environmental, social, and economic information from a wide variety of sources to define a problem in the context of sustainable development.
4. Employ systems thinking to demonstrate understanding of the complexity of environmental sustainability challenges and eco-innovative solutions.
5. Work effectively as part of a team.
6. Apply business model and carbon accounting concepts coherently to help generate a viable eco-innovative idea.
7. Develop a professional business proposal for an eco-innovation.

Outline Syllabus

Eco-innovation is?the development of products, services, practices, and processes that support sustainable development. It is where business know-how is combined with a mission to improve environmental and social conditions. Eco-innovation is needed in every sector to tackle climate change, stem biodiversity loss, help clean our air, soils and waterways, and deliver a fairer society. It is also increasingly seen as a business opportunity with the potential to reduce costs, increase competitiveness, access new customer segments, attract high quality staff, and do good in the world. Having a good idea for a new environmentally and socially positive product or service is clearly a key ingredient, but how can sustainability be ensured and unintended consequences avoided? How can ideas be turned into something that will work as a successful profit-making or not-for-profit business, providing customers with a product or service that they value, whilst ensuring a viable and sustainable business that supports good quality, meaningful jobs and livelihoods in the long-term? These are just some of the fundamental questions that will be examined in this module using a mix of lectures, interactive workshops, and both team-based and personal assignments. The lectures will address key concepts in eco-innovation and sustainability, address problem formulation and solving, business model theory and carbon accounting – all enriched with real-life examples and voices. In the workshops, students will work in small groups on focused tasks that form a path to the development of their own eco-innovative proposal. By the end of the module, students will have developed a rich and critical understanding of the complexity of eco-innovation and its role in sustainable development, along with practical skills and increased confidence to help drive positive sustainable change in the real world.

Assessment Proportions

Assessment consists of:

• An eco-innovation poster, where two eco-innovations are engagingly described, categorised, compared, and critically evaluated. This is an individual piece of coursework. It will be shared in a poster session, giving students an opportunity to learn from and practice communicating with peers.
• An eco-innovation pitch (formative), where groups communicate their eco-innovation proposal and associated business plan to a professional audience. Formative feedback is given by the panel and peers.
• A written eco-innovation proposal and business plan, detailing the: 1) scope and nature of the group’s chosen problem, 2) their proposed eco-innovation, and how it addresses the problem 3) a carbon assessment of the proposed eco-innovation and 4) a plan for implementation drawing on business model concepts. This is a group piece of coursework, where the group will reflect on contributions across the team to allocate marks.

LECX7123: Local Environmental Challenges and Initiatives

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

Human choice and action contribute to changes within the Earth system that are unprecedented in human experience. These changes are manifest in our most pressing environmental sustainability challenges, including biodiversity loss, climate change, waste and pollution management, the lack of food security, and declining resources. These challenges reflect the development and maintenance of a sustainability gap, as humanity moves away from sustainability rather than towards it at the global scale. Managing change towards more sustainable development pathways therefore represents a critical challenge facing humanity. This field-based, interdisciplinary module aims to immerse students, at the start of their postgraduate degrees, in local exemplars of globally-relevant environmental sustainability challenges. These exemplars may be drawn from multiple fields, including water pollution at Windermere, habitat restoration in the Cumbrian Lake District, the energy transition from coal to renewables, innovative waste management schemes including for nuclear waste, and local food initiatives. The module aims to explore the Earth system processes underpinning each challenge, and the ways in which social, political and cultural contexts determine each challenge. Students will examine the ways in which human decisions and actions have both created these sustainability challenges, and are now seeking to address them. The module aims to provide students with key skills and experiences in the environmental science and sustainability fields that are required by many employers, including the ability to collaborate and communicate across disciplinary boundaries and with partners across academic, policy, practitioner and community spheres.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Critically assess relationships between local case studies and global environmental sustainability challenges.
2. Construct and apply an integrated, multidisciplinary understanding of the Earth system processes that underpin key environmental sustainability challenges.
3. Critically evaluate the ways in which social, political and cultural factors shape environmental sustainability challenges.
4. Review the environmental, social and economic approaches available to address environmental sustainability challenges, and use the resulting understanding to design appropriate policies and practices for mitigation of these challenges at local scale.
5. Design and deliver approaches to collaboration and communication that successfully span disciplinary and sectoral boundaries.

Outline Syllabus

The fundamental basis to this module is the use of exemplar local case studies as a basis to explore critical environmental sustainability challenges that are globally relevant. The module will begin with workshop sessions that establish the theoretical and conceptual basis to environmental sustainability, including coverage of the broader sustainability agenda that spans environmental, social and economic components. Students will explore the most pressing environmental sustainability challenges at global scale, including pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, unsustainable resource use, and waste management, before linking these challenges to key local case studies that will be used throughout the rest of the module. Following this introductory material, students will form interdisciplinary groups who will prepare and deliver a short presentation on a chosen sustainability challenge, which will receive formative feedback. The module will then move to a series of three field-based days that focus on up to four local case studies. Within each individual day, students will explore the fundamental Earth system processes that underpin each environmental sustainability challenge, alongside the ways in which social, cultural and political factors shape the challenge. There will be a strong emphasis on understanding and appraising the multiple options available to mitigate the sustainability challenges, spanning environmental, social and economic approaches. Interaction with local stakeholders will be an important component of each case study. Throughout the module, there will be a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration within small groups of students drawn from the range of PGT programmes contributing to the module, and on engagement with multiple partners working on the sustainability challenges outside of academia. Students will then work in their interdisciplinary groupings to prepare presentations on their chosen case study and then deliver them to the rest of the cohort in a conference-style event, providing experience of teamwork and communication in a multidisciplinary context.

Assessment Proportions

The design of this module deliberately takes a local, place-based approach to examine globally-relevant environmental sustainability challenges (MLOs 1-3). The module draws on teaching and learning activities that focus both on the theoretical and conceptual basis to these sustainability challenges (MLOs 2 &3), but also on highly practical, applied approaches across policy and practice that attempt to address these challenges (MLO 4). Students will be provided with skills and experiences that go beyond only academic perspectives regarding environmental sustainability, and instead intersect with broader sectors including environmental policy and practice (MLO 5). Strong emphasis is placed on building multidisciplinary groups of students to work on learning activities during the module, promoting peer-to-peer learning and exchange of perspectives (MLO 5). These small-group learning activities are linked to both formative and summative assessment within the module, including group presentations and poster sessions. The final policy brief assessment (All MLOs) for the module requires students to demonstrate ability to integrate material from across the module, and to communicate this material in ways that are appropriate for diverse audiences, with a particular focus on policy makers.

• Group Presentations (Formative)
• Poster on selected sustainability challenge (25%)
• Policy brief on selelected sustainability challenge (75%)

LECX7124: Critical Debates on Environment and Development

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to provide theoretical and empirical foundations enabling a critical engagement with debates on Environment and Development (E&D). Both defined inclusively. Drawing mainly on geographical perspectives, the module provides students with a critical understanding of the historical evolutions of debates as well as of new ways of thinking about the relationships between environment and development, including contestations against mainstream development discourses and decolonial perspectives.

The module engages with a selection of salient themes animating debates on environment and development, including the politics of climate change, rural development and food sovereignty movements, neoliberal conservation approaches and their discontents, indigenous knowledges, environmental justice movements, and Post-growth.

The module also aims to enhance students’ academic skills in developing reasoned arguments through the analysis, interpretation and critical appraisal of complex evidence. The module is also built to deepen students’ understanding of the relationship between theory and practice, and to strengthen students’ skills in oral presentation and academic writing.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1. Critically evaluate and contrast perspectives and theories in debates on E&D (e.g.Modernisation Theory, Sustainability, Post-development);
2. Situate and appraise geographical approaches to E&D, including Critical Environmental Studies and Political Ecology;
3. Identify, analyse and interpret conceptually salient issues in the E&D field, engaging with case-studies and drawing on theory;
4. Review, summarise and critically evaluate academic and grey literature.
5. Communicate effectively with academic audiences orally and in writing.

Outline Syllabus

The module explores debates around ‘Environment’ and ‘Development’ through a critical geographical lens. We trace the evolution of discourses at intersection of environment and development discourses, movements, and policies, critically situating notions such as Sustainable Development against the backdrop of changing geographies of global inequality. Two overarching themes spanning across all activities are (i) the changing geographies of global inequality (ii) and the centrality of colonial relations to understand the ways in which the current world system is shaped, but also in informing imaginaries and policies. The module creates spaces to discuss how knowledges, theories, and ‘solutions’ are in need to be decolonised, introducing experiences and visions proposed by social mobilizations, not least in the Majority World. Drawing on Critical Environmental Studies, Political Ecology, and Post-Development, we tackle themes that include climate politics, rural development and food sovereignty, neoliberal conservation approaches and their discontents, indigenous knowledges, environmental justice movements, and post-growth approaches. Via a combination of lectures and student-led workshop activities, the module offers empirical insights and theoretical tools for understanding critical debates around environment and development, while also training students to constructing reasoned arguments through critical evaluation of evidence, understanding theory-practice relationships, and writing in an academic register.

Assessment Proportions

The assessment for this module consists of 100% coursework. It comprises three parts: a blog post, a compulsory oral presentation (formative assessment), and a final essay. The first part of coursework is a blog post on a theme of choice, linked to those examined in lectures and workshops. Students are expected to develop a clear argument supported by references to academic research (MLOs 3, 4, 5). The compact (1000 words) size allows students less familiar with social science critical writing to practice the necessary skills. The presentation is a formative assessment in which students are expected to provide an outline of their final essay, on which they receive formative feedback (MLOs 2,3,5). Pedagogically, this is an empowering occasion for students to present their ideas to the rest of the class, as well as a key moment for training verbal communication skills. The last part of the assessment consists of a longer ‘traditional’ academic essay. This summative assessment contributes to all learning outcomes, including the mobilisation of advanced theories and concepts, desk-based research and literature review, articulation of critical arguments drawing on complex evidence (MLOs 1,2,3,4,5).

LECX7125: Global Perspectives on Environmental Sustainability

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to offer students an advanced introduction in the key practical challenges that arise from the specifically ‘global’ nature of global environmental issues. The module foregrounds the inseparable and unprecedented predicament, in seeking to understand and intervene effectively in these complex issues, of having to build global collective action and responsibility, and starting from the diverse localised cultural and political trends that currently pertain. Students will thus be introduced both to cutting-edge thought and ways of thinking that aim to invoke and instantiate an emergent ‘global’ self-understanding; and to diverse perspectives from around the world, looking beyond dominant ‘Western’ worldviews alone, to explore their potential contributions to the ongoing project of constructing such a cosmopolitan ‘global’ perspective. By the end of the course, students should feel much better oriented to continue, and contribute to, this crucial work in their careers; a crucial dimension of Master’s level environmental education fit for the 21st century.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Critically interpret the complexities associated with action on specifically ‘global’ environmental challenges as these evolve in parallel with the construction of the ‘global’ and/or ‘planetary’ scale of human action and responsibility.
2. Creatively combine concepts regarding global environmental challenges from a range of cultural-epistemic contexts and wisdom traditions around the world, beyond only modern mainstream Euro-American perspectives.
3. Judge the potential contribution of China and its project of 'ecological civilisation', and/or that of other countries and regions from around the world, to contemporary global environmental challenges.
4. Evaluate the contribution of thinking in terms of ‘civilisation’ and ‘wisdom’ to more nuanced and practical understandings of contemporary global environmental challenges.
5. Choose examples, theories and arguments in collaborative work in design and presentation of high-quality, engaging and innovative work.
6. Create well-written and insightful materials on complex subjects, drawing on a diverse range of sources.

Outline Syllabus

The course consists of three major sections. Section 1: Overview on ‘global’ environmental challenges First, the course will set up its central problem and question: “How do we (learn to) tackle unprecedented global environmental challenges while, in parallel, having to build the ‘global’ itself?” After brief introductions/recaps regarding the complexity and multi-dimensionality of contemporary global environmental challenges themselves (e.g. referencing ‘planetary boundaries’ science and the ‘Anthropocene’), students will be introduced to the specific challenges of the ‘globality’ of these issues, and their parallel evolution with numerous other global challenges (as per discourses of ‘meta-crisis’). The section concludes with introduction to the key concept of ‘civilisation’ in response to this unprecedented ‘global’ moment for humanity. Section 2: Towards ‘ecological civilisation’? The middle section of the course turns to consider how thinking with the concept of ‘civilisation’, enables new and productive insights regarding this ‘global’ challenge. Starting from the singularly important global example of China’s 'ecological civilisation’ policies, the course will proceed to explore, first, multiple definitions and dimensions of civilisation, including consideration of both material and ideational aspects of civilisation, as well as its normative 'light' and 'dark' sides, and issues of the 'more-than-cognitive' that particularly speak to a concern for ‘civilisation’; and, secondly, various accounts of the dynamics of civilisation(s), including regarding their rise and fall, what may be learned regarding ‘where we are today' in trajectories of civilisation and what we could do in response. Section 3: ‘Global’ perspectives on environmental challenges The final section will expand the purview further, opening up to a diverse set of global perspectives and voices to explore their inputs and insights for an emergent ‘global’ approach to ‘global’ environmental challenges. Drawing on research expertise of a range of lecturers regarding diverse parts of the world (e.g. south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Pacific islands etc…), students will hear about both the specific issues and manifestations of ‘global’ environmental challenges in these places, and particular insights, conceptual and practical, regarding promising responses shaped by their situated and endogenous cultural and/or ‘wisdom tradition’ perspectives.

Assessment Proportions

There are two pieces of assessment, consisting of, first, small group presentation (15 mins – 20%) that will invite students to explore the benefits and challenges of thinking of global environmental challenges in ‘civilisational’ terms (MLOs 2-5); and, secondly, essays (4000 words – 80%) that will give students the opportunity to explore specific issues/global environmental challenges of particular personal interest while drawing on at least two of the perspectives from around the world to which they have been exposed on the course (MLOs 1-6).

LECX7221: Geoinformatics

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Cannot take LECX6138

LECX7226: Research Methods in the Social Sciences

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module provides an introduction to advanced research methods and approaches in the social sciences, with a particular focus on qualitative research methods. Catering to students new to social science research as well as students who have experience of conducting research at undergraduate level, this module seeks to introduce new ways of doing and thinking about academic research. This course leads you through the process of independent research, from framing the questions we’re asking about the world – and the practical and political drivers behind this – to considering how to plan ethical research. We explore a broad variety of different approaches to generating data, including a critical look at both conventional and less conventional social science methods. Expect rigorous theoretical discussion, based in deep engagement with the literature, paired with engaging hands-on opportunities to put these concepts into practice. We’ll also look beyond research at academic communication and consider ways of reaching the public with outputs from our work.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Produce a critical literature review using a quantitative or qualitative approach suitable for social science research
2. Plan and budget for an innovative independent social science research project
3. Design social science research that is ethical, inclusive and risk aware
4. Choose appropriate qualitative methods for the generation and analysis of qualitative data.
5. Present research findings to a variety of audiences using a range of different styles of communication.

Outline Syllabus

The course covers the following content over the module:

1. What is social science research? Developing questions in social science research. The importance of positionality and ‘the personal’ in social science research. Introduction to methodology.
2. What is ethics in social science research? How to design ethical and inclusive research projects.
3. Literature reviews.
4. Overview of conventional approaches to qualitative research – interviews, focus groups, participant observation, ethnography, autoethnography, surveys.
5. Researching texts.
6. Overview of creative methods in qualitative research
7. Introduction to quantitative approaches – reading quantitative studies.
8. Approaches to qualitative data analysis.
9. Dissemination of findings – writing for academic and non-academic audiences.

Students will have two teaching events.

• An interactive 2-hour hybrid lecture/seminar. These classes will involve a combination of conventional lecture-style teaching, interspersed with class discussion and group work. Where appropriate, these sessions may be delivered more in the style of workshops, with opportunities for students to ‘have a go’ with research methods being discussed, or to work through problems set by the lecturer. These classes will be delivered by a lecturer.
• A one-hour paper-based discussion. These classes will involve class discussion of a paper chosen to relate to the lecture that week, and to draw out a particular aspect of the topic. PGR students will be invited to host/attend these sessions in order to give insight from their own research. These sessions also provide an excellent opportunity for Masters students to ask PGR students questions about their research experience in order both to inform their own dissertation research plans, but also to learn more about the research culture of LEC and to help shape ideas about potential future PhD research.

Assessment Proportions

Assessment 1: Creative Literature Synthesis This assessment requires students to first undertake a critical literature review (MLO 1) and then choose a creative mode of expression for their key findings (MLO 5). Students will be free to choose their creative output, to reflect their interests. This could be a Zine, a Podcast, a piece of non-academic writing, a photo-essay, artwork or any form of creative media, (abstract representations will be accompanied by a brief explanatory note). Students will be invited to share ideas for staff and peer feedback. Assessment 2: Research Proposal Students will be provided with a project brief and asked to develop a research proposal to meet the brief (MLO 2, 3 and 4). The proposal will be delivered as an in person oral presentation (MLO 5).

NATS6201: Teaching, Outreach and Public Engagement

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5 US Semester Credits 
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: None