PhD 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.

In the UK's most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), 94% of our publications were judged to be `internationally recognised', with an exceptionally high proportion (65%) judged to be `internationally excellent' or `world-leading'.

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

Critical cartography; 
Emotions, identities, place and geographic scale;
Global production networks and labour;
Socio-spatial inequality and vulnerability;
Political economy of environmental use, governance and conflict;
Sustainable cities;
Urban politics and diversity;
Urban transition and crisis
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, Culture and GIS , the Society and Environment Research Group , and Cities, Politics and Economies Group . The latter 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, North America and the Far East, while others now shape national and international policy agendas through their work in government agencies, research institutes and activist organisations.