Course outline
Teaching is delivered through lectures, supervisions and seminars. Some subjects also include practical/laboratory classes. In the first year, you have around eight hours of lectures and one or two supervisions a week.
You’re assessed at the end of each year – mostly through three-hour written exams, though some papers are assessed by coursework. In Year 3, you can substitute one paper for a 10,000 word dissertation.
Year 1 (Part I)
In the first year, you take four subjects. At least three must be from the core subject areas:
- Politics
- International Relations
- Sociology
- Social anthropology
Your fourth paper can either be another from the core subjects or chosen from the following additional subjects:
- Archaeology
- Biological Anthropology
- Psychology
Years 2 and 3 (Part II)
In your second and third years, you can choose one of the following three single-subject tracks:
- Politics and International Relations
- Sociology
- Social Anthropology
Alternatively, you can take one of five two-subject tracks (see details on the course website):
- Politics and Sociology
- Social Anthropology and Politics
- Social Anthropology and Religious Studies (Modern Religions)
- Sociology and Criminology
- Sociology and Social Anthropology
Please note that it’s not possible to change track between Years 2 and 3, unless switching from a two-subject track to one of the subjects within it. Some final year papers require you to have taken a relevant Year 2 paper.
Single-subject tracks
Politics and International Relations
Politics and International Relations engages with the nature of the political world within countries and between them. It asks questions about how and why national and international politics have developed as they have, and how people have imagined that they might be changed. It explores issues from human rights and democracy, to financial crises and international conflict.
Year 2
You take Comparative Politics, International Organisation, and History of Political Thought. Your fourth paper can be two 5,000-word essays on politics and international relations; a statistics paper; or one offered in another HSPS subject or from others such as History or Psychology (please see the website for the full range).
Year 3
You take a general paper in politics and international relations, plus three optional papers. One of these can be a 10,000 word dissertation, and one can be from selected papers in another subject. You can choose from a broad range of papers in politics and international relations, covering diverse themes, regions and contemporary issues.
Social Anthropology
Anthropologists address ‘what it is to be human’ by doing in-depth participatory studies (fieldwork) on the amazingly varied ways people live, think and relate to each other in every part of the modern world: from love and intimacy in online worlds, to how Amazonian communities respond to deforestation; how globalisation affects factory workers in India, to experiences of citizenship and democracy in African cities.
Year 2
You take The Foundations of Social Life, Anthropological Theory and Methods papers and a paper on the anthropology of an ethnographic area. Your fourth is an optional paper.
Year 3
You take two advanced anthropology papers - Ethical Life and The Anthropology of the Subject; and Power, Economy and Social Transformation - and choose a further two from a combination of optional papers, an ethnographic area paper and a 10,000 word dissertation.
Optional paper topics in Years 2 and 3 usually include urban anthropology, gender, development, science and society, media and visual culture, as well as choices from another HSPS subject.
Sociology
Sociology focuses on the nature of modern societies, how they’re organised and how they’re changing. It examines social institutions and the changing forms of power and inequality among other topics, and develops theories and conducts empirical research in order to deepen our understanding of the processes that shape social life.
Year 2
You take Social Theory, Modern Societies II: Global Social Problems and Dynamics of Resistance, and Concepts and Arguments in Sociology or Statistics and Research Methods. Your fourth paper can be a further sociology paper, or one from another HSPS subject, Archaeology, Education, History, History and Philosophy of Science, or Psychological and Behavioural Sciences (PBS).
Year 3
You choose three papers from a range of sociology and social theory topics - these might cover subjects such as media and culture, gender, war and revolution, global capitalism, social problems in modern Britain, criminology, racism, race and ethnicity, and religion. One paper can be replaced by a 10,000 word dissertation. Your final paper can be a further sociology paper or one from another HSPS subject, from Archaeology, or from PBS.
For further information about studying Human, Social, and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge see the Human, Social, and Political Science website.
