As a graduate of a three-year anthropology and sociology degree, your research and fieldwork experience, which forms such a major part of our degree course, will help to set you apart from other graduates.
These placements build up fantastic experiences and can connect you with organisations and people who will be invaluable when it comes to progressing your career.
Brunel graduates have gone on to work at the World Bank, UNICEF, the NHS, NGOs and charities such as Oxfam and Save the Children, as well as local government, legal sectors and the media.
Graduates have also gone on to work as teachers, journalists and research officers in the health and social sectors, and in other professions requiring knowledge of social and cultural processes.
Others go on to pursue further research degrees in anthropology and become academic anthropologists.
Anthropology is concerned with contemporary issues such as multiculturalism, identity politics, racism and ethnic nationalism, changing forms of the family, religious conflict, gender, and the political role of culture. It also addresses fundamental questions about human nature, such as: ‘What do we have in common with each other cross-culturally?’ and ‘What makes us different?’
Sociology, its sister subject, looks at the foundations of social life and the big issues in contemporary society such as inequality, racism, globalisation, and migration.
In particular, your sociology studies at Brunel will be closely related to the central and ever-increasing importance of the communications media in our culture, for example, how poverty is portrayed and the powerful influence of celebrities.
Brunel is a great choice for this combined study with lecturers from both subjects producing cutting-edge research alongside their teaching, on both global issues and local problems.
This research expertise filters down into what you will learn. In anthropology students have learnt about youth and motorcycles in Rwanda, and in sociology, about cosmetic tourism.
Choose this course and you can do fieldwork on any subject, anywhere in the world, whether it’s learning about refugees in Athens or mother and toddler groups in inner London.
Around half of Brunel anthropology, students carry out a placement or fieldwork abroad, in places as wide-ranging as India, Nepal, Australia, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica.
Recent UK placement destinations include the Royal Anthropological Institute, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Amnesty International and the Department of Health.