Human Geography

A PhD in Human Geography at Manchester will allow you to benefit from the supervision of world-leading academics who have reputations for research excellence.

The University of Manchester is one of the best places to study human geography globally, and our department has a high reputation for its research and teaching.

Your research will seek to help create a fair and sustainable future, engaging with themes such as:

- emotions, identities, place and geographic scale;

- everyday life in uncertain times;

- global production networks, development and labour;

- socio-spatial inequality and vulnerability;

- political economy of environmental use, governance and conflict;

- sustainable cities and green transitions;

- urban politics and mobilities;

- urban transition and crisis;

- critical cartography.

Our human geography staff members hold editorial positions with major journals, such as Antipode, Area, Geography Compass, Geoforum, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and Progress in Human Geography.

In addition, there are three research groups containing human geographers at Manchester:

- Mapping, Computing and Geographical Information Science (MCGIS) ;

- Society and Environment Research Group ;

- Cities, Politics and Economies Group , which is part of the wider  Manchester Urban Institute , the umbrella organisation for

research into cities at the university.

Our PhD students are members of these groups, and all are appointed two supervisors to assist them with their research.

Recent PhD graduates have been appointed to positions at leading universities in Europe, the Americas and East Asia, while others now shape national and international policy agendas through their work in government agencies, research institutes and activist organisations.