Battlefield & Conflict Archaeology
Doing an Archaeology Masters
Welcome to Archaeology at the University of Glasgow! If you’re trying to decide if doing an Archaeology Masters here is the right choice for you, these pages should provide a wealth of information that will make your decision to choose us an easy one. We have a range of resources available to our PGT students that are unique to Archaeology at Glasgow.
For starters, unlike many PGT programs, we provide a dedicated working space solely for the use of PGT students in an open plan communal office, with desks for laptops, a computer with attached printer, and study space within the Gregory Building. Internet access is available through the University’s campus-wide wireless network, which you can access easily via software provided by the University. Twenty-four hour access to the Gregory Building is available to all PG students, if you have some late night studying. There’s no need to queue up in the library for a computer, or rush across campus in between seminars to check your email or print an essay.
Furthermore, we want you to be part of the archaeological community at Glasgow, regardless of the duration of your time with us. Working and studying alongside your peers, postgraduate research students, and your lecturers gives you the opportunity to make strong personal connections that we hope will be enduring links wherever your life and career takes you.
Additionally, working and studying in the Gregory building will provide you with easy access to many of our other resources for PGT students. The Leslie and Elizabeth Alcock Library and Resource Centre for Historical Archaeology provides access to the late Dr. Alcock's collection of books, papers, notes and photographs for the use of PG students, and bone fide researchers to encourage research into the study of historical archaeology, with particular reference to the early middle ages of Scotland and the British Isles. This should provide an invaluable research resource that you will be able to utilize throughout the length of your program, with access to many volumes out of print or not available in the University library. You can browse a PDF version of the catalogue online.
You’ll also have twenty-four hour access—via a code—to the Archaeology IT Lab, which has PCs loaded with ArcGIS, AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, and Internet access, as well as various graphics software packages. The IT lab also has a laser printer available for your use, as well as digitising tablets. Furthermore, if you need lab space for your studies, there is an archaeology lab that is attached to the suite of offices in which the PGT study space is located, and available for use upon request.
During your time as PGT Archaeology student at Glasgow, you’ll have the opportunity to take part in various fieldwork projects. Past Masters students have assisted with geophysical survey, excavation, artefact studies and so on. These volunteer opportunities for fieldwork will provide you with invaluable experiences and connections with archaeology at Glasgow—as well as giving you a chance to get out of the library and into the field, to paraphrase a favourite fictional archaeologist.
Many of these fieldwork opportunities will be provided by your course convenor, allowing you to experience elements of their research and fieldwork during your time studying with them, and develop a solid working relationship if you decide to continue at Glasgow with a PhD. Additionally, when it comes time to select a dissertation topic, you’ll find your course convenors to be an invaluable resource and support network for guiding you through the process, and in helping you pick a topic that intersects or complements their existing research, giving them the opportunity to provide you with a wealth of background information, possible gaps in certain areas you could target, and picking a dissertation topic you’ll enjoy researching and writing.
During the course of your PGT experience with us, you’ll have the option in the Spring term to choose from a variety of optional courses such as:
• Archaeological Theory and Interpretation
• Critical Themes in the Display and Reception of Objects
• Early Christian Monuments of Scotland
• Geographic Information Systems for Archaeological Projects (introductory)
• Geophysical Survey: Interpretation & Applications
• Interpretation and Applications of Aerial Data
• Science-based Analysis of Archaeological Materials
• Themes in early Medieval Scotland
This range of optional courses, coupled with the selection of your core PGT programme, allows you to tailor your experience and education at Glasgow to focus your skills and understanding towards a specific career path—small finds specialist, commercial work, surveying, etc.--and course convenors will be happy to discuss the best optional course options for your individual needs.
Your experience of Archaeology at Glasgow will also be made unique by the wealth of interdisplinanry connections maintained and cultivated by the staff and lecturers. Your course convenors have extensive connections within academic networks, as well as to heritage bodies and commercial units all over the United Kingdom, and their history of collaboration and cooperative work with national heritage bodies, commercial units, media companies, and other archaeology departments will benefit you directly both during your PGT programme and afterwards. Past PGT graduates from archaeology at Glasgow have experienced this directly, going on to work at the Royal Commission of Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland, commercial firms such as Northlight Heritage and GUARD Archaeology Ltd., and Historic Scotland, as well as for various community projects, and other archaeological ventures.
We hope that presenting the above has given you some concrete examples of why doing an Archaeology Masters at Glasgow will be the right choice for you academically, professionally, and personally. We feel that the resources and experiences we offer to PGT students are second to none, and that if you choose us, your time here will be engaging, challenging and stimulating, with the formation of lasting relationships. As you read through the following pages that are specific to each course, remember that though your fellow PGTs may be pursuing different research topics, by coming to Glasgow for a PGT you’ll be joining an inclusive community of undergraduates, postgraduates—both taught and research—and staff. This community is both academic and social, with serious discussion and serious fun. This is Archaeology at Glasgow. And we want you to be part of it.