Department of Social Sciences

Welcome to the home of Social Sciences!

Encompassing the subject areas of Criminology, Politics and Sociology, we are a vibrant, friendly and thriving department with over 30 staff and more than 600 undergraduate students, as well as students on our postgraduate and professional programmes. We offer an exciting range of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and are committed to providing excellent quality teaching in a welcoming and supportive environment. Our consistently excellent National Student Survey results demonstrate our commitment to delivering top quality programmes that engage with our subject disciplines.

We bring our own cutting edge research into our teaching, and engage with international research agendas in Criminology and Politics and Sociology. Our programmes offer a global perspective on society – whether exploring drugs trafficking in Colombia, prison culture in North East England, activism in India, or politics and security in the post 9-11 world – giving students the analytical tools to engage academically with a broad range of contemporary issues.

The Department has forged close links with a range of private, public and voluntary sector organisations which enables us to bring the real world into our classrooms through visiting speakers, employability modules, field visits, and work-based learning options. Students in the Department come from a wide variety of backgrounds and many are also involved in a range of innovative volunteering initiatives. Our students go on to succeed in a diverse range of careers. 

We hope these pages provide you with all the information you need about the Department’s staff members, teaching programmes and research specialisms. If you are a student we look forward to seeing you, and if you are an organisation or individual who thinks we can help you with research, training or consultancy, please get in touch.