Centre for Geography and Environmental Science
The Centre for Geography and Environmental Science on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall focuses on innovative teaching and cutting-edge research on humanity’s impact on the natural world at a range of geographical scales, from local landscapes to global climate systems.
Staff at the Centre are internationally-known researchers and teachers. Together with our students, we make up a friendly and collegiate community dedicated to discovering and sharing knowledges about how social and natural environments relate to each other.
We celebrate and encourage interdisciplinary thinking in all our activities; our teaching and research draws on approaches and methods that span humanities, social sciences and sciences. In so doing our aim is to better understand and explain the complex relationships between societies and the natural environment in the past and present, as well as predict their possible transformation in the future.
We offer several degrees, with undergraduate courses in Geography, Environmental Science and Marine Science. Many of our undergraduate degrees are available with Study Abroad or a Professional Placement, and we also offer an MSci in Environmental Science.
In addition we offer several MSc degrees, including MSc Marine and Coastal Sustainability; MSc Sustainable Development; and MRes Sustainable Futures. We have PhD programmes in Human and Physical Geography, with particular strengths in sustainable development, conservation and policy, energy policy, social and cultural geography, quaternary science, ocean science, and remote sensing.
Our teaching and learning is underpinned by a philosophy of critical geographical thinking, which stresses the importance of trained geographical observation, the value of working with others and across disciplinary boundaries, and the transformative power of knowledge.
The Centre resides on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus, surrounded by areas rich in cultural heritage and natural beauty. Cornwall is an exceptional place in which to study issues of environment and society; a living laboratory with a range of marine and terrestrial environments, a wealth of natural resources, as well as creative and resilient communities.
Some of our research responds to our unique regional geography, with staff leading locally based research projects on issues such as sustainability, conservation, social cohesion and wellbeing.
Academics based in the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science conduct research in both human geography and physical processes, focusing on past, present and future global environmental change, biological and physical oceanography, Earth observation and remote sensing using light aircraft and drones, sustainable development, energy policy and governance, critical heritage studies, social innovation, changing political geography and human cultural evolution.
Alongside research specific to our Cornwall location, our staff also lead large international, interdisciplinary research projects studying global environment and climate. Staff undertake research in a range of places, from local libraries and laboratories, to field sites worldwide as far afield as Iceland and Patagonia. Research is funded by a range of organisations, including UK research councils, government organisations, the European Union, and charities.
By bridging the divide between physical and human geography, the Centre embraces the need for interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary societal challenges, such as those presented by climate change. A number of staff are also associated with Penryn’s Environment and Sustainability Institute - an interdisciplinary centre leading cutting-edge research into solutions to problems of environmental change.
We publish our research across a wide range of publications including book chapters, articles, reviews and comments.
