Human Geography and Anthropology

Human geography and anthropology is a degree that combines two closely related disciplines concerned with how human beings organise their lives and inhabit the world. Human geography examines the spatial and environmental dimensions of human social life: how people distribute themselves across the Earth's surface, how places and landscapes are shaped by human activity, how economic and political processes produce inequalities between regions, and how migration, urbanisation, and globalisation are transforming the human world. Social anthropology investigates how different societies organise themselves, what values and practices different cultures sustain, and what it means to be human in the full diversity of its cultural forms.

At Brunel University London, this programme brings together the expertise of two closely related disciplines, developing your knowledge and skills across both human geography and anthropology. You will engage with the spatial and environmental frameworks of geography alongside the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology, building a rich and multifaceted understanding of how people live, where they live, and why the two cannot be separated. The programme encourages you to move between scales, from the local and ethnographic to the global and systemic, and to use both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

The programme includes a foundation year, providing additional academic preparation, and a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to engage with different cultural and geographic environments firsthand.

Graduates from human geography and anthropology degrees pursue careers in international development, NGOs, local government, urban planning, research, education, journalism, cultural organisations, and the civil service. The combination of spatial thinking and cultural analysis is valued wherever understanding how people inhabit and organise shared spaces is important. Postgraduate study in human geography, anthropology, development studies, or urban studies is a natural route for those who wish to develop further.