Geography

• Top 30 in the UK for Geography Education (Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018)

Our graduates are highly employable (THE, 2019) because we give our students a broad, integrative geographical knowledge and the key competencies we teach (problem solving, critical and analytical thinking) set our graduates apart. Our courses offer the opportunity to study a broad range of human, physical and environmental topics, but also to become well-trained in a range of research methods (field and laboratory). Geographers acquire specialised technical and practical as well as transferrable and professional skills. 

Our staff are research-active, and they will share their passion for the subject and knowledge with you. Our modules reflect staff interests, and these topics include rivers/coastal environments, rural-urban areas, social inequalities, geohazards, governance, environmental modelling, oceanography, sedimentology or sustainability.  

Our large team is involved in cutting edge research with other academic institutions, non-governmental groups and communities across the globe. In addition, the Geography team have fantastic links and are involved in engagement activities with local groups and schools across the UK; we champion science in society. We are also situated within one of the most beautiful places to study Geography, with Snowdonia National Park on our doorstep. Bangor University could not offer a more stimulating and lively environment in which to study Geography.

A degree in Geography opens up a wide range of career paths and job types. Our geographers have an integrative perspective of social and natural sciences, and this distinguishes them from other disciplines. They possess a combination of transferrable skills making them very employable. Graduates go on to work as environmental consultants, town/emergency planners, teachers, surveyors, sustainability/recycling officers, data analysts, or GIS officers/cartographers. They also take on roles in business, finance and human resources, or marketing, PR and sales. Employers include the Civil Service, local government, charities/NGOs, environmental protection agencies or consultancies, and private companies.

We have a multidisciplinary team of staff, their expertise ranges from glacial to marine environments, and from food geographies to rewilding. Our staff are involved in leading research with other academic institutions, non-governmental groups and communities across the globe. Staff interests include: riverine pollution, arctic warming, coastal hazards, nature and society, food poverty, submarine sedimentary systems, and the culture of enthusiasm. Our staff are active in the following areas of research;

• Conservation Science
• Crops and Livestock
• Environmental and Soil Science
• Forestry
• Rivers and Catchments
• People, Space and Place
• Geospatial Analysis

Geography research at Bangor University covers both human and physically aligned work, with a strong interdisciplinarity and applied focus, addressing policy issues and conducting action research with stakeholder groups.

We work in a range of contexts internationally, studying processes and interactions at a range of scales – from global to regional, through to site-specific cases.

Topics covered encompass:

• Rural land-use change and controversies (e.g. Brexit & rewilding)
• Sustainable communities, tourism and eco-developments (e.g. food festivals & nature-based approaches)
• Human-nature relations and environmental governance (e.g. payments for ecosystem services & social forestry)
• Food values, justice and poverty (e.g. food banks & redistribution networks)
• Participatory approaches, citizen science and knowledge-politics (from mobile based surveys to post-truth debates)
• Long-term river response to environmental change
• Geoarchaeology of alluvial environments
• Process geomorphology
• Reconstruction of terrestrial glacial environments
• Catchment Science and Modelling
• Alluvial Geochemistry and impact of PHEs on river systems.