Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology

at Durham University United Kingdom

This course critically addresses a range of key issues and debates relating to crime and the criminal justice system. You will have the opportunity to develop an in-depth understanding of crime, deviance and criminal justice from critical, theoretical, policy, legal, political and practical perspectives and will address issues of historical and contemporary concern such as terrorism, sex work, legal and illegal drugs, crime in the night-time economy, forced migration, gender and crime, domestic violence, crime prevention, prison and punishment, policing, youth crime and justice, law enforcement and the use of new technologies. You will also study issues of theoretical and social importance with lecturers who are international experts in their fields.

There are several areas of overlap between Anthropology and Sociology, making them particularly suitable for combination in a joint honours degree. The BA Anthropology and Sociology course combines modules from the BA Anthropology and BA Sociology providing a comprehensive understanding of humans as social and cultural beings.

This MSc course is aimed at UK and international students who are seeking access to cutting-edge behavioural science research, advanced training in quantitative methods, and instruction in the application of behavioural science principles to everyday problems faced within the public, private, and third sectors.

The MSc has been designed to provide you with an understanding of factors that impact behaviour, including the role of ‘nudging’ in behaviour change, and the research and analytical skills to enable an analysis of business problems from a behavioural perspective. It will provide you with a wide range of knowledge (both of a theoretical and a practical nature) and transferable skills including various professional ways of disseminating knowledge.

This course will prove valuable for those intending to enter the public, private, or third sector, including business, charities and government, local authorities and international organisations, by providing you with the tools to apply behavioural principles to problem-solving and decision-making in these domains. It will provide behavioural insights to help individuals build confidence, influence others, think and cooperate inter-culturally, set and achieve goals, negotiate mindfully, and teamwork effectively.

We offer post-A level courses in French, German, Italian, Russian and Hispanic Studies. These courses are open to students who have an A level (at least grade A) or equivalent qualification in that language. We also offer beginners’ courses in Arabic, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. Beginners can take cultural modules alongside post-A level students, and completely merge with the advanced stream in the final year.

Here are some examples of how to combine languages

• You might choose to study one language (chosen from French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish [Hispanic Studies]). You will need an A level at the appropriate grade pass in your chosen subject. However, if you wish to study Arabic as a single language, you will need an A level at the appropriate grade pass in at least one other foreign language. You take four modules in the language area of your choice, along with a further two modules in a subsidiary subject of your choice outside the School in both your first and second years. You then take your year abroad and return to your final year to take either six modules in your chosen language or five modules in your chosen language and one module from a subject studied in your second year. Subsidiary subjects may be chosen from those available in departments outside of the School, subject to module availability, individual entry requirements and timetable compatibility.
• You might choose to study two languages (chosen from Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish [Hispanic Studies]). These languages can normally be divided 3 modules +3 modules between two languages, or 4+2 as you prefer (subject to some variation in module availability between the languages).
• You might initially choose to study three languages (chosen from Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish [Hispanic Studies]), which you study in equal proportions (2+2+2). After your first year, you will be required to drop one of these and study no more than two languages in Years 2 and 3.

This interdisciplinary and custom designed MSc offers the unique opportunity to look at conflict prevention and peacebuilding through the lenses of human security, social justice, and people’s diplomacy. Integrated into the MSc structure are opportunities to develop operational and vocational skills in humanitarian intervention, conflict mediation, everyday negotiation, conflict sensitive programme design, the use of peace indicators, participatory approaches to peacebuilding, and gender-sensitive approaches to security.

The MSc is designed for graduates with a career in government, inter-governmental organisations, NGOs, humanitarian organisations, or academia in mind, and for practitioners looking to enhance their practical skills while placing these within a broader theoretical perspective.

The MSc will provide you with advanced knowledge of the complex and specialised areas of peacebuilding, among it conflict analysis, conflict prevention, conflict resolution and conflict transformation, community driven reconstruction, peace processes within the context of contemporary conflicts and in the context of broader international (humanitarian) interventions. Integrated into the MSc structure are opportunities to develop operational and vocational skills for example in negotiations, conflict mediation, conflict sensitive programme design and programme management, or urban peacebuilding. You are provided with theoretical and empirical knowledge and with practical skills that are helpful for current and future employment opportunities. The courses are thus attractive to both graduates and mid-career practitioners. Whilst the academic and applied focus of the MSc comes through a peace and conflict studies analytic lens, course material will also draw from traditional strategic/security and development studies, enabling cross fertilisation between different perspectives. It allows the exploration of unique and new paradigms and practices in the fields of conflict, peace, security, defence, diplomacy, development and humanitarian intervention.

The LLB degree is a highly flexible three-year, full-time course. There are approximately 300 students on each year of the LLB. While providing a solid grounding in the main areas of English and Welsh law, it also allows for individual specialisation through a variety of optional modules offered by the School and other departments in the University.

The degree course provides the opportunity to obtain a Qualifying Law Degree as recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board. (Please note: whether or not a degree exempts a student from the academic stage of training to be a solicitor or barrister depends on the modules that the student studies. In practice, virtually all of our students choose to study the modules that are required by the Law Society and Bar Council, and do gain a Qualifying Law Degree.)

Study abroad
The LLB with a Year Abroad (YA) comprises all of the content of the three-year regular LLB, plus an exciting additional year spent at one of our European or international partners during the third year of study. At present, Durham Law School has partnerships with universities in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Singapore.

The aim of the MSc Developmental Psychopathology is to provide advanced research training for students interested in pursuing careers in the field of research, child development and clinical or educational psychology. The subject-specific and generic postgraduate training, provided by the course, enables students to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding required of a professional conducting research in clinical, child development or other fields.

Research training forms a key focus of the MSc course. In addition to providing training in basic research, the course aims to integrate research perspectives from clinical and educational psychology. This distinctive emphasis is reflected in the learning outcomes, structure and assessment of the course.

The BSc Environmental Geosciences course seeks to develop specialist geoscience students for careers in the environmental sector, further study or research. Graduates of our degree go on to work for companies in a range of relevant areas including environmental management, water management, energy, mining and geotechnics.

You may also go on to study for an MSc and PhD in more specialist areas including environmental geochemistry, hydrology, hydrogeology and geotechnics. The course has a special emphasis on employability and benefits from consultations with experts from the industry including Amec, Atkins, the Environment Agency, English Nature and Mott MacDonald.

This MA is designed for those who wish to explore the social dimensions of risk and resilience. The Department of Geography is especially well-suited to examine these in relation to environmental hazards, climate vulnerability and security-related risk, but you are encouraged to develop your own thinking in relation to any aspect of risk research, including broader environmental change, disaster risk reduction, risk and insurance, risk and health, risk and migration, risk and social policy, risk and governance, borders and terrorism. This course foregrounds the existence of multiple ways of understanding risk, from risk as an objective phenomenon managed through scientific tools (e.g. in the case of environmental hazards) to risk as a social construct and a political technique (e.g. in the case of risk and security).

Dealing with risks as a function of both the natural and social environments we live in, the course responds to the growing realisation that many risks are being created through social processes bound to questions of security and vulnerability, including the ways that risk techniques are emerging and being employed as a means of securing uncertain futures.