Dr Austin Zeiderman and Dr Ryan Centner

This course is compulsory on the MPhil/PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies and MSc in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research). This course is available on the MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Management (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Environment and Development, MSc in Environmental Policy, Technology and Health (Environment and Development) (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International Migration and Public Policy, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Regional And Urban Planning Studies and MSc in Urban Policy (LSE and Sciences Po). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Compulsary for MPhil/PhD Human Geography and Urban students without MSc Human Geography and Urban Studies.

This is a reading-intensive seminar focused on grasping contemporary debates in human geography and urban studies. Given the diversity of topic, approach, and style involved in geographical research and writing, it is impossible to provide a comprehensive overview in just ten sessions. Instead, we will read and discuss texts that expose a breadth of interests and modes of human-geographical scholarship, aiming to achieve theoretical understanding while considering how the ideas involved inform empirical research. Together, we will focus on some of the most pressing concerns and lively conversations in the discipline, as well as identify the points of tension and differences of position between them. We will pay attention not only to what scholars in human geography and urban studies are talking about, but how, why, and what is at stake. The essay that students write should help them situate their research interests and understand how they might contribute to wider bodies of scholarship.

In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, pre-recorded lectures, live online lectures, in-person lectures and other supplementary interactive live activities.

This course is delivered through a combination of interactive lectures across Autumn Term and Winter Term.

This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term and Winter Term.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the ST.

Readings focused on in this course will vary from year to year.

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the ST.