Curriculum and Career Prospects
Public Sector and Policy
Careers in the public sector offer opportunities to shape and implement policies across governance, law, healthcare, and population management, contributing to effective public administration and meaningful societal impact.
Civil Society and Community
Roles in civil society and community organisations allow professionals to promote culture, strengthen communities, and lead initiatives in sustainability, environmental stewardship, and social advocacy.
Private Sector and Industry
The private sector provides dynamic career paths in human resources, media, creative industries, technology, and AI, where professionals drive innovation, develop talent, and shape the future of business and digital solutions.
Research
Careers in research develop critical skills in analysis, problem solving, and evidence-based decision making, enabling professionals to influence policy, industry innovation, and scientific advancement.
Research
Data Analysis
If you’re considering careers where decisions must be justified with evidence – UX research, market insights, policy evaluation, programme monitoring, or research roles – this domain gives you a strong foundation to investigate social worlds rigorously. You’ll learn how to design studies, collect and interpret qualitative and quantitative data, and communicate findings clearly to different audiences, skills that travel across the public sector, private industry, and civil society.
I Courses include
AN2101
Research Methods in Anthropology
SC2211
Methods of Social Research
SC3209
Data Analysis in Social Research
SC3221
Qualitative Inquiry
Public Sector and Policy
Development, Urbanization and Mobility
If you’re drawn to big questions about cities, development, and migration, this domain helps you connect “macro” forces to everyday experiences on the ground. It’s especially relevant for students interested in urban planning, community development, education initiatives, and migration-related work, including roles in government, consultancies, and NGOs.
I Courses include
SC4882B
Citizenship, Nation and Globalization
SC4210
Sociology of Migration
SC3227
Modernity and Social Change
SC3206
Urban Sociology
SC3204
Sociology of Education
AN4210
Urban Anthropology
AN3208
Critiquing Development
Governance and Law
If you’re considering careers in governance, justice, policy, compliance, or community safety, this domain builds the analytical toolkit to understand how rules, power, and institutions shape real lives. You’ll examine law in everyday life, deviance and social control, policing and security, and the social dynamics of authority and legitimacy, useful in public administration, regulatory work, and justice-sector organisations.
I Courses include
HS2916
Love that Kills
SC4880D
Policing and Security: Past, Present and Future
SC3215
Law and Society
SC3205
Sociology of Power: Who Gets to Rule
SC2212
Sociology of Deviance
Health, Wellbeing and Population
If you want to work in healthcare, public health, ageing services, or social services, this domain helps you see beyond purely biomedical explanations to the social realities that shape health outcomes. You’ll explore mental health, emotions, ageing, drugs and society, and population issues, giving you the perspective needed for service design, community health programmes, and policy/evaluation work that actually fits how people live.
I Courses include
HS2915
Beyond the Good and Evil of Drugs
GEN2008
Purposeful and Productive Aging in Community
SC4220
Aging and Health
SC2226
Sociology of Mental Health
SC2216
Emotions and Social Life
SC2211
Medical Sociology
SC2208
Population and Society
AN2208
Biocultural Perspectives on Health and Wellbeing
Private Sector and Industry
Digital Life, AI and Technology
If you’re curious about AI, digital platforms, and technological change and want to work at the intersection of people and technology, this domain trains you to ask the “so what?” questions that responsible tech work depends on. You’ll learn how technologies shape identities, relationships, institutions, and inequalities, preparing you for pathways in tech governance, responsible AI, user research, and innovation-and-society roles.
I Courses include
SC3211
Science, Technology and Society
SC210
AI and Society
AN3209
Anthropology of Technology
Economies, Work and Organizations
If you’re considering careers in consulting, HR, organisational development, market research, or finance/risk, this domain gives you a “people-in-systems” lens for understanding workplaces, organisations, markets, and crises. You’ll explore how networks and institutions shape economic life, why cultures of work matter, and how financial disruptions have social origins and consequences, insights that are valuable across many corporate and public-sector settings.
I Courses include
AN4206
Political Economy of Music
SC4219
Social Origins and Consequences of Financial Crises
SC4203
Sociology of Organizations
SC3226
Markets and Society
SC2209
Money, Business and Social Networks
SC2202
Sociology of Work
Media and Creative Industries
If you’re considering a career in creative industries, media, communications, content strategy, cultural organisations, or audience research, this domain builds critical skills and industry-relevant knowledge. You’ll learn to analyse popular culture and visual storytelling, understand how cultural production is shaped by power and policy, and develop strong interpretive and communication skills, useful for media strategy, cultural management, and public-facing work.
I Courses include
SC4205
Sociology of Language and Communication
SC3213
Visual Ethnography: Theory and Practice
SC2229
K-drama and Sociological Imagination
AN3206
Visual Culture
AN2204
Media Anthropology
Civil Society and Community
Culture, Community and Everyday Life
If you enjoy understanding people “where they are” – in communities, cultural spaces, and everyday routines – this domain is for you. It develops cultural literacy and ethnographic sensitivity that’s especially useful for community development, heritage/cultural work, education and outreach, events/ tourism, and social impact programmes. You’ll explore how meaning and belonging are made through food, ritual, senses, sport, storytelling, and the uncanny.
I Courses include
HS2913
Representing Live(s)
AN3207
Sports and Society
GEH1062/GEC1024 Ghosts and Spirits in Society and Culture
AN3207
Senses and Society
AN3205
Ritual, Performance and Symbolic Action
AN2205
Food and Foodways
AN2203
Peoples and Cultures of Southeast Asia
AN2202
Culture and Society
Identity, Diversity and Social Justice
If you’re interested in social justice, DEI, education, community programmes, or public-sector work, this domain provides concepts and cases to navigate real-world diversity with depth and care. You’ll examine how inequality is produced and challenged across family, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, religion, and belief systems, building the ability to translate complex social realities into inclusive practices and thoughtful interventions.
I Courses include
HS2932
The Power of Ideas in the Malay World
SC3219
Nature and Nurture
SC4218
Religion, Secularity and Post-Secularity
SC3219
Sexuality in Comparative Perspective
SC3203
Race and Ethnic Relations
SC2220
Gender Studies
SC2205
Sociology of Family
SC2204
Social Inequalities: Who Gets Ahead?
Environment, Risk and Sustainability
If you’re considering pathways in sustainability, climate adaptation, ESG/CSR, environmental policy, or community resilience, this domain helps you understand the human side of environmental change. You’ll examine how risk and uncertainty are experienced differently across social groups, how institutions respond (or fail to), and why environment–society relationships matter for real-world decision-making, especially in climate-affected contexts.
I Courses include
SC6218
Environment and Society
SC4880E
Climate, Risk, Uncertainty and Society
SC2221
Humans and Natures