The Master of Arts by Research degree program involves the completion of a thesis proposal and a research thesis. It is designed for students wishing to engage in serious research but not able to devote the three years required to complete a PhD or with a research project which does not lend itself to that level of extended treatment. Human geography involves studying the interactions between humans and their environments. A key feature of geographical work – one that often distinguishes it from other cognate fields in the humanities – is its focus on place, space and the environment. Human geographers focus on describing and exploring the places and spaces in which people live in, move to and move from, and the cultural, social and environmental modifications humans make to their environments. Much of the investigative work in human geography is field-based; methodological innovation, especially with qualitative and ethnographic methods, is a standout feature of much of the research (academic and doctoral) conducted by members of this group. An enduring feature of human geographers is their capacity to ask, answer and critique big questions and to couch these inquires in appropriate milieu. Such questions may relate to humans and nonhuman relationships within different biophysical, social and cultural contexts. They also require a focus on both geographical (local, national, global, supranational) and temporal (past, present future) scales. Human geography is profoundly interdisciplinary. It draws and seeks knowledge from the natural and physical sciences as well as from the social sciences and the humanities. Human geography has a several key sub-disciplines: cultural, social and political geography; urban geography; environmental geography and political ecology; geographies of education and rural geography. Human geography is represented by major international scholarly societies, including the Association of American Geographers (AAG), The Institute of British Geographers/Royal Society of Geography (IBG/RGS), and the International Geographical Union (IGU-UGI). Within Australia the field is represented by the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG), and the State branches of the Geographical Society including the Geographical Society of New South Wales, the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland, the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, the Australian Geography Teachers’ Association, the Geography Teachers’ Association of New South Wales, the Geography Teachers’ Association of Queensland, the Geography Teachers’ Association of South Australia, the Geography Teachers’ Association of Victoria and the Geographical Association of Western Australia. UNSW has a long term and well-established track record with human geography, with leading research enterprises in social, cultural and urban geography. With a series of recent appointments and staff transfers there is now a significant research strength in the field within the faculty of Arts and Social Science, and significant cross faculty linkages with scholars working in in the Faculties of Science and the Built Environment, in addition to scholars based at UNSW Canberra. The faculty has fourteen human geographers located in HAL, SOSS, SPRC and Education. In recent years researchers working in human geography have generated significant grant success and research profile. As such, formalizing Human Geography as an area of PG supervision will help to consolidate this field in the Faculty. There are also strong connections between human geography and existing areas of faculty research strength in Development Studies, Environmental Humanities, International Studies and Area Studies. With its emphasis on interdisciplinary exchange and societal.