Material Culture & Artefact Studies
Glasgow’s Archaeological Community
Coming to do an Archaeology Masters at Glasgow is not just about the academic work. It’s also a chance to experience a vibrant, friendly and entertaining city, and make friends and contacts with people passionate about and engaged with archaeology. To cultivate these contacts and relationships, there are a wide range of fun and social activities you are welcome, and encouraged, to attend. There are a large number of field trips run both as part of your course and for undergraduate courses. While the undergraduate course field trips are quite well attended, there are usually a few spare spots left on the coach for PGs.
Also, every Wednesday during term time, seminars on various archaeological topics are presented by guest speakers. The seminars expose you to a fascinating array of the different archaeologies being undertaken at universities around the United Kingdom and around the world, and might spark an interest, an idea, or a way of framing a narrative that hadn’t occurred to you. The setting is quite informal, and you’re encouraged to engage and ask questions of the speaker. After the talk there is a continuation of the discussion over some pints at a local pub. It’s a great way to make contacts, meet new people, and have interesting and stimulating discussions with undergrads, postgrads and staff. The Glasgow Archaeological Society, which is Glasgow’s long-established--since 1856--community archaeology group, also hosts monthly lectures with a wide range of speakers on various topics during term time. In the spring, Glasgow Archaeology and the Glasgow Archaeological Society co-host the prestigious Dalrymple lecture series, which brings a preeminent expert to Glasgow to deliver a series of seminars over four days exploring in depth their area of research.
As a PGT student at Glasgow, you’ll also experience what we feel is another aspect that makes Archaeology at Glasgow unique. We have a community of postgraduate students that provide a welcoming, family-style atmosphere of support and advice. Many of our postgraduate research students are international as well, so if you have questions about being an international student in Glasgow, from the day to day mundane aspects of living in a new place, to different expectations of coursework in a UK university, they are an incredibly helpful and supportive resource. Even if you’re a UK resident, if this is your first time in Glasgow, the postgraduates can provide helpful anecdotal advice on safe places to rent, good local restaurants and pubs, and all the disparate information that’s helpful to living in a new city. On the social side, the postgraduate community is also very active, with an annual expat Thanksgiving being hosted every year by the North American contingent, as well as Halloween and Christmas parties, and just general Friday pub nights, all of which postgraduates are welcome to attend. If you have any a question that you would like to ask about studying and living in Glasgow or the PG experience, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can email a postgraduate student at
We want you to consider yourself part of the community of postgraduates before you even arrive at Glasgow, and to think of the support provided by the postgraduate community as yours to rely on to help you transition into the start of your PGT experience.
Getting Involved
An outgrowth of this close, supportive community is the postgraduate-run Love Archaeology Magazine, a digital magazine focused on exploring the archaeology in everything, through a wide and varied lens: including an in-depth analysis of Indiana Jones as an archaeologist, reviews of movies that feature archaeology such as Pixar’s Brave, and regular features about good archaeology gear and where to find it. Love Archaeology also maintains a Facebook page and a Tumblr that collate and link to digital archaeology news, cool objects and stories, and some pretty spectacular stuff from the never ending excavation of the internet. Get involved by coming along to a meeting or sending in an article you might like to see published.
Archaeology at Glasgow also has its own student society as well, the Glasgow University Archaeological Society, whose meetings are an excellent way to meet people, get involved with the society, go on GUAS run field trips, and buy a wicked cool Pictish symbol hoodie.
You’ll also have the opportunity to volunteer for fieldwork outside anything connected with your course, such as at the subject area’s annual field school, the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot Project (SERF), which teaches undergraduates the basics of fieldwork on sites from various periods, ranging from Neolithic henges to Iron Age hillforts to Christian Early Medieval to upland post-Medieval. It’s good archaeology and good times.
Living in Glasgow
Speaking of good times, if you want to spend any of your free time sightseeing in between writing essays during the course of your PGT experience at Glasgow, it’s worth noting that Glasgow has excellent transport links. Via rail, bus and ferry, it’s possible to see an amazing amount of Scotland’s gorgeous landscapes, history, and archaeology. Stirling, Edinburgh, Perth, the Isle of Bute, Linlithgow, and various other small towns are possible as day trips using just public transport, and if you wish to go further afield it’s relatively easy to find a cheapish youth hostel for an overnight stay. Exploring Glasgow on foot is also relatively easy, and it has some amazing architecture, pretty vistas, and fascinating little bits of hidden history, like Glasgow Cathedral—the only untouched Medieval cathedral in Scotland—the Viking/Pictish carved stones in Govan Church—both of which were excavated by Glasgow Archaeology’s own Professor Stephen Driscoll—and more modern history like the Glasgow Riverside Museum and the tall ship Glenlee. Explore, experience and enjoy what Scotland has to offer during your time as PGT here at Glasgow.
We hope that all the above information has stressed the incredibly unique and exciting nature of doing an Archaeology Master’s at Glasgow, and the professional, personal and academic benefits that your year as PGT will earn you, as well as becoming a part of the strong, committed and thriving social community of postgraduates at Glasgow. Archaeology at Glasgow is fulfilling, exciting, and engaging, and we look forward to welcoming you to it as a postgraduate!