Bachelor of Geography

Geography, with its interest in the earth, environments, people and place, and with its variety of methodological approaches, is distinctive from most natural or social science courses. Geographers are problem-solvers, who are able to balance and interrogate qualitative and quantitative data, and who view the world in all its connectivity. Studying geography at Cambridge will take you from the fenlands of East Anglia, through active volcanic landscapes, into global climate futures – and more. All of these explored through the lenses of social, cultural and historical geographies, as much as through the geology, biology and physics underpinning the processes.

The discipline of Geography reflects a breadth, diversity, and concern for ‘real-world’ issues that cannot be narrowed down into a set of exclusively human or physical questions. Students at Part IA are therefore introduced to the wide range of topics, philosophies, methodologies, and skills that characterise modern Geography, before being invited at IB to choose their specialisms or, as is common, to choose to study papers that straddle, or sample, both the scientific and social science topics on offer. Interdisciplinarity is one of the subject’s greatest strengths and a key skill that Cambridge geographers take with them for life.

At Part IB and Part II students choose from papers such as volcanology, glaciology, biogeography, environmental change and earth observation on the scientific side, as well as political ecologies, urban geographies, development, geographies of the Arctic, demography, and geographies of knowledge. These diverse papers all contribute to the development of geographical theories and methods, however, and they are held together through core papers in geographical thought and techniques. Teaching takes place within lectures, lab classes, field trips and, distinctively, small-group ‘supervisions’, which offer unique opportunities for discussion of ideas and details. It is, we think, a rewarding and exciting programme, representative of the importance and substance of the modern discipline of Geography.