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The Department of Geography
| Welcome to the Department of Geography at U.C.C. where nearly a thousand students are registered in our various programmes. Our central concern is to create, preserve, communicate and interrogate a wide range of geographical knowledge. Through teaching and research we aim to challenge both ourselves and our diverse student body to create better ways of analysing, understanding and representing the closely interconnected geographies of environment, socio-economic and cultural and political transformations across the earth. Staff and students in Department are actively involved in carrying out a substantial range of research and publish widely in these areas. |  |
Degree Programmes at the Department of Geography
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Geography
is a discipline with deep roots in the humanities, the social sciences
and the physical-biological sciences and therefore sits comfortably
in both the Faculties of Arts and Science. The Department is involved
in three major undergraduate streams in the university: It is an anchor humanities/social science subject in the European Studies degree in cooperation with History and the four continental language departments (French, German, Italian and Hispanic Studies). Geography also plays an important role in the Language and Cultural Studies BA Degree Programme. |
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The department is also a core department with Geology for the Earth Science programme and can also be studied as a single subject for B.Sc. The Department also forms a part of the wider Environmental Sciences degree, which also includes Chemistry Maths, Physics, Zoology, Archaeology and Plant Science. The Department has a vibrant postgraduate programme led by lecturers actively researching in a large range of geographical areas. Students can undertake research M.Phil, Ph.D. degrees in these areas. The Department also offers taught M.A. programmes and a Diploma in Geographical Information Systems. |
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The Discipline of Geography
As an intellectual
tradition Geography aims to provide its students with critical and distinctive
concepts for thinking about and understanding the earth and its diverse
habitats and peoples as well as providing a wide range of technical skills
which students can carry into their subsequent careers.
By definition, geography is a field discipline and trains students in
their skills of observation, data collection and analysis including sampling,
coring, interviewing: hence the integral part the field days, field weekends,
and major field week courses play in the curriculum. Geography is also
a strong graphical/visual discipline; hence its concern in developing
students' skills with maps, GIS (Geographical Information Systems), Remote
Sensing (RS) and a wide range of graphic and textual images.
Geography also demands the development of skills in writing, and communicating
as well as qualitative and quantitative analyses: hence the importance
of active student participation in class tutorials, seminars and practicals
and in producing an individual research dissertation. Geography is a practical
subject which requires its students to familiarise themselves with the
latest concepts and skills in the subjects of biogeography, climatology,
marine and coastal studies, geomorphology, landscape ecology and remote
sensing.
Above all geography students develop methods of study in the library,
acquire the correct bibliographic skills, learn to ask critical geographical
questions and make coherent attempts at answering these questions. Students
are encouraged to consider both the theoretical and applied dimensions
of the subject, particularly relating to theoretical and critical perspectives
on the spatial and symbolic organisation of societies and the complex
relationships between societies and environments.