Human, Social & Political Sciences

Why choose Girton

Human, Social and Political Sciences (HSPS) may be a new tripos but the subjects being brought together in this new way have long established roots both in the University and at Girton College. HSPS offers great flexibility for students who wish to experience new subjects as well as explore familiar ones.

Girton will admit around ten students a year to the HSPS Tripos; enough to create a vigorous community of social scientists. The nature of the HSPS course means that students spend their first year studying a broad range of subjects but then go on to specialise in the second and third years. This results in a community of social scientists who develop academically in slightly differing directions from a common base of understanding, which gives rise to a wonderful environment for discussion and debate. This sense of 'debate within discipline' is further enhanced by the fact that the subject (at undergraduate level) is overseen by Directors of Studies with research interests in archaeology, social anthropology, medicine and psychology, and by those with long experience of teaching politics and international relations.

Undergraduate information

The multi-disciplinary nature of this course offers students the opportunity to engage critically with concepts and ideas they may never have encountered before and to make links between related areas of the human, social and political sciences. The course is structured so as to give students a broad introduction to these related areas, allowing them to make informed decisions when it comes to specialisation in the second and third years as well as giving them a solid foundation on which to base their further study and research.

In the first year students choose four subjects of:

Students are given the freedom to take up one of many combinations so that within this broad based introduction students are tailoring the course to their interests right from the beginning.

In the second and third years students can choose to specialise in one of either a single-subject track or a two-subject track.

These tracks offer exciting opportunities for study both for those students who want a single subject specialism and for those who wish to maintain multi-disciplinary study. Full details on optional papers within these tracks and on opportunities to switch between the two are available on the University website.

The components of this new tripos have previously been included in other courses which HSPS now supersedes and collates. Owing to their history as established disciplines within Girton information on these components can be found on the appropriate subject pages of the website:

Archaeology

Biological Anthropology

Social Anthropology

Politics, International Relations & Sociology

For further information on studying Psychology please see the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences subject page.