Central & East European Studies/Geography

Central and East European studies combined with geography is a pairing that makes particular sense for a region whose story has been one of dramatic landscape, contested borders, mass migration, and rapid political and economic transformation. Central and Eastern Europe, from the Baltic states and the Visegrad countries through the Balkans and into the former Soviet space, has experienced more concentrated upheaval in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries than almost any other part of the world: two world wars, the Holocaust, communist consolidation and collapse, democratic transition, EU enlargement, the resurgence of populism, and now the Russo-Ukrainian war and instability across the Caucasus and Central Asia. Geography provides the spatial and environmental frameworks needed to understand how landscape, resources, borders, and mobility shape political and social outcomes.

At Glasgow this four-year full-time programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study in Central or Eastern Europe and to experience the region at first hand. You will chart the key issues and turning points in the area from Berlin to Vladivostok, across the Baltic, the Balkans, and Central Asia, engaging with the historical, political, social, and economic dimensions of the region's transformation. The geography component gives you tools for understanding spatial patterns, environmental challenges, urbanisation, migration, and the physical geography of the landscapes through which the region's history has played out.

Together, the two disciplines offer one of the most analytically rich frameworks available for engaging with one of the world's most consequential regions.

Graduates of Central and East European studies and geography programmes find careers in international affairs, diplomacy, journalism, non-governmental organisations working in the region, development and humanitarian organisations, intelligence analysis, energy policy, business, and academic research. The regional expertise, language exposure, and spatial analytical skills the degree develops are valuable in a wide range of professional settings. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in area studies, international relations, human geography, or political science.