Masters Degrees (Material)

This MA provides a broad based training in social science approaches to the analysis of material and visual media: ranging from art, photography, film and media within visual anthropology, to consumption, museum anthropology and cultural heritage, landscape and genres (such as clothing and the built environment), within material culture.

About this degree

The programme covers a range of contexts such as production, exchange and consumption, and uses anthropological perspectives based on the comparative study of societies, historically and culturally. Skills training is given in social anthropological field research and analysis, and in specific methods for the study of material and visual forms.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of one core module (45 credits), three optional modules (45 credits) and a research dissertation (90 credits).

Core modules

• Critical Issues

Optional modules

The following is a selection of possible option modules:

• Anthropology and Photography
• Advanced Topics in Digital Culture: Ethnographies of the Digital
• Documentary Film and the Anthropological Eye
• Art in the Public Sphere
• Social Construction of Landscape
• Issues in Power and Culture
• Anthropology of the Built Environment
• Mass Consumption and Design
• Risk, Power and Uncertainty

Dissertation/report

All MA students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a 15,000-word dissertation.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of lectures, group presentations and discussion, tutorials, independent directed reading, interactive teamwork, laboratory and practical work, video, film and web based courses. There will also be visits to museums, galleries and other relevant sites. Assessment is through coursework, unseen examination and the dissertation.

Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Material and Visual Culture MA

Careers

The programme can lead to careers in a wide range of areas such as architecture, media, commerce and aspects of development work where an emphasis on the material and visual environment is central.

Recent career destinations for this degree

• Project Officer, British Council
• Senior Administrator, LSE (The London School of Economics and Political Science)
• Senior Officer in Marketing and Communications, Singapore Economic Development Board
• Event Co-Ordinator, Tate Britain
• Social Enterprise Consultant, Sisterhood for Development and Sisterhood Handicrafts

Employability

The programme is designed as an advanced research degree providing exposure to a vanguard and creative field within anthropology and related disciplines. Students learn how to apply ethnographic theory and methodology in material and visual culture to a wide range of case studies highlighting material culture in the wider world - ranging from art, through photography, clothing, consumption, cultural memory, monuments and the built environment.

The degree can lead to further doctoral research or careers in a wide range of areas such as architecture, media, museums, business and aspects of development work where an emphasis on the material and visual environment is central.

Careers data is taken from the ‘Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education’ survey undertaken by HESA looking at the destinations of UK and EU students in the 2013–2015 graduating cohorts six months after graduation.

Why study this degree at UCL?

UCL Anthropology is the world's leading centre for the study of material and visual culture. We publish the Journal of Material Culture and several relevant book series, and have nine specialist staff in this field.

The department is one of the largest anthropology departments in the UK. Our excellent results in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercises and 2014 Research Excellence Framework show that we are the leading broad-based anthropology department in the UK.

Students are encouraged to take full advantage of the wider anthropological community in London and the department's strong links with European universities and international institutions.

Research Excellence Framework (REF)

The Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The 2014 REF was carried out by the UK's higher education funding bodies, and the results used to allocate research funding from 2015/16.

The following REF score was awarded to the department: Anthropology

68% rated 4* (‘world-leading’) or 3* (‘internationally excellent’)

Learn more about the scope of UCL's research, and browse case studies, on our Research Impact website.

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The History of Design and Material Culture MA focuses on both objects from everyday life and representations of them since the eighteenth century as a basis for research and analysis.

The course allies theory and practice in seminar-based discussions that embrace various methodological issues and perspectives, including Marxism, discourse theory, phenomenology, semiology, museology, gender, race, class, memory and oral testimony. Depending on the material you analyse in your essays and seminars, as well as the dissertation topic you choose, you can also emphasise your own intellectual and subject-specific interests.

Since its inception in the late 1990s, the MA has garnered a national and international reputation as one of the pioneering and most successful programmes of its kind. As a research-led course, it harnesses the academic expertise of staff with a recognised wealth of teaching and research excellence in subject areas such as fashion and dress history, the history and theory of advertising, photography and the mass-reproduced image, and heritage and museum studies.

Under guidance, you will be encouraged to explore the relationship between theory and practice and to develop your own skills as an independent researcher, thinker and writer.

Course structure

The History of Design and Material Culture MA draws on the wide-ranging academic expertise of staff in the fields of the history of decorative arts and design, dress history, material culture, museology and social history.

It stimulates innovative and interdisciplinary study in the history of design and material culture in both their western and non-western contexts, considering the relationship between local, national and international patterns of production, circulation, consumption and use.

The course is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, study visits and tutorials. Considerable emphasis is placed on student involvement in the weekly seminar readings and discussions within the two thematic core modules, Exploring Objects and Mediating Objects.

Based at Pavilion Parade, a Regency building overlooking the famous Royal Pavilion, teaching takes place close to the seafront and city centre amenities.

Syllabus

Exploring Objects

The Exploring Objects module introduces you to a series of different research methods and historiographical approaches, as you interrogate and make sense of designed objects in terms of how they are designed, produced, circulated, consumed and used in everyday life. It covers the period from the late eighteenth century to the present time and typically involves discussion and debate on the following themes, theories and methods: Marxist and post-Marxist historiography; production and consumption; gender and taste; phenomenology; object-based analysis; the use of archives; and 'good writing/bad writing'. It also introduces you to the academic rigour of postgraduate dissertation research.

Mediating Objects

This module complements Exploring Objects by focusing on the mediation between 'this one' (the object itself) and 'that one' (the object as represented in word and image). On one level, it examines how objects are translated in various texts and contexts, from museum and private collections to photographs, advertisements, film and fiction. On another level, it examines how objects are transformed through the embodied processes of everyday rituals such as gift-giving and personal oral and collective memories. The module therefore deals with the idea of intertexualities and how the identities of things and people are phenomenologically bound up with each other. By extension, you examine objects in relation to ideas concerning sex, gender, class, generation, race and ethnicity.

Dissertation

The centrepiece of your MA studies, the dissertation is a piece of original writing between 18,000 and 20,000 words on a research topic of your own choosing. It allows you to pursue a specific research topic related to your own academic and intellectual interests in a given area of the history of design and material culture, for example fashion and dress, textiles, ceramics and glass, product design, interior design and architecture, graphic communications, advertising and photography, film, museums, collecting and curating, and design pedagogy. The dissertation is largely based on primary research, often using specialist archives and surviving historical material.

Facilities

This course makes use of the University of Brighton Design Archives, which include the archives of the Design Council, Alison Settle, FHK Henrion and the South of England Film and Video Archive.

Close professional contact with national institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as with local collections and centres of historical interest (such as Brighton’s unique Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, with its internationally famous collection of decorative art from the 1890s onwards), present research opportunities for students registered on the course.

The course is closely linked to our arts and humanities research division through a joint research lecture series, and we have successfully encouraged high achievers to register for the MPhil/PhD programme.

The student environment also includes the thriving postgraduate Design History Society as well as opportunities for conference presentation, professional contact and career development in the field.

Careers and employability

The course has an extremely healthy track record in helping students to take up careers in related areas of employment and further study. Many of our postgraduates have succeeded in finding work as lecturers, curators, journalists, designers and design consultants, while many others have pursued doctoral research, most often also securing prestigious funding from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council).

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We live in a material world, materials form the spaces in which we live and the objects that we use. Materials create and, unfortunately, may destroy the environments that we inhabit. Even in an increasing digital age in which the global economy and market continues to expand, the physical nature of materials is always present but it changes and is subject to contextual particularities, such as traditional practices, availability of resource and skills, emerging materials and technologies such as digital fabrication.

The programme focuses on process; the direct experience of using and making with materials; how materials are used in creative works, design and production; how new opportunities and ideas may evolve through reflective practice.

The programme employs a cross disciplinary approach and uses the workshops and expertise across Edinburgh College of Art. You will work with many materials including glass, textiles, metals, timber and concrete. You will also access and use various methods of digital fabrication such as additive manufacture and CNC routing and laser cutting.

The programme addresses directly important contemporary issues of economy, inclusion and sustainability, through the practical, collaborative and individual projects.

The programme is available to students from a variety of design and creative material practice, art, design, craft, and architecture backgrounds and from more traditional technologically based disciplines, such as engineering, looking to expand their skills and understanding in both material techniques and collaborative practice.

Programme structure

The programme is largely workshop- and studio-based. You will gain experience and expertise from a variety of tutors, support staff and technicians.

Periods will be spent in different workshops of the ECA, to explore materials and technique including: metals, glass, textiles and architecture.

As you progress through the programme you will acquire both skills and understanding of various materials, apply these in a series of projects that consider contemporary issues, culminating in a self-directed project, developed from your own experience.

Learning outcomes

The MSc in Material Practice seeks to provide core learning outcomes:

• To understand and develop further skills in materials technique and processes
• To explore and develop cross disciplinary design and creative practice
• To understand the evolving nature of material practice and digital fabrication
• To understand explore contemporary issues and themes through material investigations
• To formulate and undertake cross-disciplinary research in materials and material practice

Career opportunities

Opportunities exist with the many and various cross-disciplinary practices that operate in design professions such as product design, manufacturing, architecture and art practice.

Graduates can direct their career, having furthered their skills, explored and developed cross disciplinary design and creative practice and explored contemporary issues and themes. During the programme there will be opportunities to meet with other designers and industries.

The programme will also help those that wish to develop their own practice as fabricators, designers. artists or contractors.

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Introduction

MA Material Futures explores the intersection of craft, science and technology encouraging students to look beyond existing boundaries to anticipate future needs, desires, and challenges. Taking materiality as the starting point of the design process we integrate high and low technological materials and processes, pursuing relevant applications across fashion, architecture, product design, and communication & critical design.

Observing and analysing how we live today allows us to consider how we can live better tomorrow. Considering the current and future context of design decisions is core to our ethos, combining social, political and economic inquiry to inform future, sustainable design applications.

Content

The 21st century marks the beginning of a new textile revolution - one we believe is smart, invisible, sustainable, ethical and poetic.

MA Material Futures is part of the Jewellery and Textiles programme. The MA Material Futures ethos is to approach textile design as a form of industrial design but with a focus on the language and codes inherent to textiles. By exploring key contextual questions to interrogate, critique and propose new design concepts, we invite our designers to engage fully with the challenges of designing for the 21st century. How do we reconcile ecology and smart technology? With current progress in nanotechnologies, how do we engineer invisible functions with new aesthetics? How can biomimicry principles inform the design of resilient textiles? Will scientists become designers? With digital fabrications becoming mainstream, what future for craft? How can textiles lead to the development of smart interactive interface? Can textiles inform a new way to imagine architecture? These are examples of questions MA Material Futures will consider over the two year postgraduate programme.

Smart textiles, invisible performance, sustainable and ethical issues as much as poetics and aesthetics call for new design perspectives. Crossover with other design disciplines as well as with science and socio-economics are more pertinent than ever. Rapid changes in culture, economics and technology need dynamic designers who can propose and realise intelligent, responsible innovations with strategic thought, leadership and personal vision. The MA Material Futures course aims at equipping designers with critical skills to design for our future selves and provides a 'think-tank' in which to cultivate ideas, reflect on individual practice, and challenge the boundaries of textile design.

Structure

MA Material Futures lasts 60 weeks structured as two consecutive periods of 30 weeks each (i.e. two academic years) in its 'extended full-time mode'.

MA Material Futures is credit rated at 180 credits, and comprises 2 units:

Unit 1 (60 credits) lasts 20 weeks
Unit 2 (120 credits) runs for 10 weeks in the first year and 30 weeks in the second year.

Both units must be passed in order to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award of MA derives from your mark for Unit 2 only.

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Who is this programme for?:

The programme is ideal for students wishing to pursue a career in the museum, heritage and arts sectors with a focus on non-Western art and culture, and both tangible and intangible heritage. It will suit practicing museum and heritage professionals who are interested in strengthening their knowledge of contemporary debates in critical museology, critical heritage studies and material culture studies. With its interdisciplinary focus, it will suit students interested in broadening their expertise across anthropology, art history and archaeology. It will also provide an excellent postgraduate foundation for students interested in pursuing PhD research concerned with museums, heritage, and material/visual culture in Asian, African, Middle Eastern and transnational/transcultural contexts.

This interdisciplinary programme brings together anthropological, art historical and archaeological perspectives to explore the interconnecting fields of museums, heritage and material culture studies. The MA disprivileges Western museum and heritage discourses and practices, and explores tangible and intangible cultural heritage as spheres of global interaction.

The MA will equip students with a theoretically-informed critical understanding of museums, heritage and material/visual culture. Taught across the Department of Anthropology and School of Arts, the MA provides a unique opportunity to learn about current debates in World Art and World Heritage, combining ethnographic, art historical and archaeological approaches.

Students will be introduced to a wide range of thematic and theoretical issues, and will have the opportunity to curate a small exhibition in the Curating Cultures module, and put into practice anthropological research techniques in the Ethnographic Research Methods course.

Situated in London’s ‘Museum Mile’, a few hundred meters from the British Museum, and with its own Brunei Gallery, SOAS provides a unique environment in which to study the cultural heritage of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Programme Overview

The programme consists of 180 credits in total: 120 credits of modules and a dissertation of 10,000 words at 60 credits.

All students are expected to take the core and compulsory modules listed here - https://www.soas.ac.uk/anthropology/programmes/ma-museums-heritage-and-material-culture-studies/

Students are advised to take one or both of the recommended modules listed below or may wish to select from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology or the School of Arts (Departments of Centre for Media Studies, History of Art and Archaeology or Music) options lists.

The remaining credits can be selected from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology list or the School of Arts options. See below for a detailed programme structure.

Language Entitlement Programme:

Many students choose to pursue a language through the SOAS Language Entitlement Programme (LEP). Languages normally available include Arabic, Chinese, French, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu. Others may also be offered.

Teaching & Learning

Students taking the MA in Museums, Heritage and Material Culture Studies will have the opportunity to achieve:

- A critical awareness of contemporary theoretical debates in museum studies, cultural heritage studies, and material/visual culture studies;
- A familiarity with the distinctive contributions of anthropology, art history and archaeology to these interdisciplinary fields;
- A critical awareness of World Art/World Cultures/World Heritage, with an emphasis on SOAS’s regional specialisms (Asia, Africa and the Middle East) as well as transnational/diasporic contexts;
- An understanding of ethnographic approaches to tangible and intangible heritage research;
- Experience of object-based knowledge and museological research methods.

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Course content

Material culture - the study of archaeological material remains - is at the very heart of archaeology. Studying objects gives you a route into any field you choose, and the combination of theory, analysis and experimentation makes this course unique. Experimental archaeology gives us new insights into the processes involved in the production, use, discard and deterioration of material culture.

This course interweaves practical and theoretical approaches to material culture. You'll explore the theory underpinning our understanding of the material world through ethnoarchaeological studies while developing invaluable practical skills: from analysis of use-wear and residue traces, building reference collections, to making short documentaries for the heritage sector.

This course is also available as an MA.

Information for international students

• If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability:
• IELTS: 6.5, with a minimum of 6.5 in Writing and no less than 6.0 in all other components
• PTE: 61, with a minimum of 61 in Writing and no less than 55 in all other components
• CAE and CPE (from January 2015): 176, with a minimum of 176 in Writing and no less than 169 in all other components
• TOEFL: 87, with a minimum of 23 in Writing and a minimum of 21 in all other components
• Trinity ISE: level 3 with Merit in all components

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This ground-breaking, internationally acclaimed masters programme offers you a unique opportunity to investigate Gaelic culture – entirely through the language of the Gaels themselves.

This masters course gives you a chance to study in-depth the extraordinary transformations affecting the Gaelic world during recent centuries up to the present day, drawing upon the wealth of material culture, literature, tradition, and language of the people of the Highlands.

You may already be knowledgeable on the tradition, material culture and history of different Highland districts. By placing them in a wider regional context through your studies, with a specific focus on material culture – the many objects made and used in the Highlands – you will attain a deeper understanding of the world of the Gaels, both past and present.

The course is taught in Gaelic, from a Gaelic perspective, by internationally recognised scholars

Special Features

• Loans for tuition fees are available from the Students Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS) for eligible Scotland domiciled and EU students, and loans for living costs for eligible Scottish students.
• It is available to study entirely online
• You can fit your studies around your personal and professional commitments.
• Emphasis on developing skills in fieldwork, oral interviewing and archival research
• Building strong links with local communities, local and national museums and agencies
• You can study individual modules for personal or professional development, or work towards the PgCert, PgDip or masters degree.

Modules

PgCert

Core modules are:

Material culture and European ethnology
Research methods
Settlement and land use

PgDip

Core modules are:

through the centuries
big questions of today.
You will also choose one option module which may include:

the stability of the earth environment,
lifestyles and neighbourhood,
migration and life impact

Msc

To achieve the award of MSc, you must complete a research dissertation

Locations

This course is available online with support from Sabhal Mor Ostaig UHI, Slèite, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach, IV44 8RQ

Study Options

You will study through supported online learning using the University's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
Assessment by formal exams, projects, field work
You are also required to attend an induction session offered face-to-face at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI on the Isle of Skye or through distance online delivery
This course may be studied by international students from your home country

Funding

From 2017, eligible Scotland domiciled students studying full time can access loans up to 10,000 from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS).This comprises a tuition fee loan up to £5,500 and a non-income assessed living cost loan of £4,500. EU students studying full time can apply for a tuition fee loan up to £5500.

Part-time students undertaking any taught postgraduate course over two years up to Masters level who meet the residency eligibility can apply for a for a tuition fee loan up to £2,750 per year.

See Scholarships tab below for full details

Top reasons to study at UHI

Do something different: our reputation is built on our innovative approach to learning and our distinctive research and curriculum which often reflects the unique environment and culture of our region and closely links to vocational skills required by a range of sectors.
Choice of campuses – we have campuses across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Each campus is different from rich cultural life of the islands; the spectacular coasts and mountains; to the bright lights of our city locations.
Small class sizes mean that you have a more personal experience of university and receive all the support you need from our expert staff
The affordable option - if you already live in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland you don't have to leave home and incur huge debts to go to university; we're right here on your doorstep

How to apply

If you want to apply for this postgraduate programme click on the ‘visit website’ button below which will take you to the relevant course page on our website, from there select the Apply tab to complete our online application.
If you still have any questions please get in touch with our information line by email using the links beow or call on 0845 272 3600.

International Students

If you would like to study in a country of outstanding natural beauty, friendly communities, and cities buzzing with social life and activities, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland should be your first choice. We have campuses across the region each one with its own special characteristics from the rich cultural life of the islands to the bright city lights of Perth and Inverness. Some courses are available in one location only, for others you will have a choice; we also have courses that can be studied online from your own home country. .http://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/studying-at-uhi/international

English Language Requirements

Our programmes are taught and examined in English. To make the most of your studies, you must be able to communicate fluently and accurately in spoken and written English and provide certified proof of your competence before starting your course. Please note that English language tests need to have been taken no more than two years prior to the start date of the course. The standard English Language criteria to study at the University of the Highlands and Islands are detailed on our English language requirements page http://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/studying-at-uhi/international/how-to-apply-to-uhi/english-language-requirements

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Material culture and artefact studies combines the archaeological recovery and specialist examination of an object with its presentation, management and understanding within a cultural context.

Why this programme

• This MSc in Material Culture & Artefact Studies will prepare you to participate at both a practical and theoretical level within the field of specialist artefactual analysis.
• You will be able to undertake a work placement to gain valuable work experience in a museum, archaeological unit or other cultural institution.
• You will benefit from the involvement of staff from Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland and other institutions within Scotland, and will have the opportunity to work with collections from local museums, including the University’s own Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

Programme structure

The taught component consists of core courses and optional courses, running over two semesters.

Assessment is normally focused on written performance, but oral presentation skills and other modes of assessment allow you to develop your writing skills in a number of formats. This is in addition to the practical emphasis on developing your ability to interpret and analyse artefacts.

For the MSc you can opt to do either a dissertation or an extended work placement (assessed by work placement eportfolio and either a research report or a student exhibition design).

Core courses

• Material culture in context
• The process of artefact studies.

Optional courses include modules such as:

• Lithic analysis
• Independent study
• Critical themes in the display and reception of objects
• Early medieval artefacts 
• Viking and late Norse artefacts (AD 750-1350). 
• Optional courses drawn from Archaeology or from other programmes across the University can be taken by agreement with the programme convener.

Career prospects

The two strands to the degree enable you to prepare for further doctoral research whilst also providing opportunities for valuable vocational experience in a commercial environment.

The wealth of experience and knowledge provided by the interdisciplinary nature and focus of the degree and the networks and relationships developed during their time here, has stood past graduates in good stead upon graduation. They have found full-time positions with Historic Scotland, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Guard Archaeology Ltd. While others are working with various heritage organisations and some are continuing with their postgraduate studies.

Several of our international graduates have found employment working at the Smithsonian, Washington D.C and at the Pink Palace Museum, Memphis Tennessee. Others continue to work in the Cultural Resource Management sector. Several students have gone on to further doctoral research at Glasgow University and beyond, on prehistoric stone tools, Shetland lace knitting, Bronze Age ceramics and medieval settlement.

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This course enables you to apply the study of ancient material and visual culture to a particular historical and geographical context. You’ll undertake specialist research training in art, numismatics and epigraphy that will equip you for further PhD study in these fields, or for a career in museum work or education.

The course includes a core module in Approaching Ancient Visual and Material Culture, plus a core language module, as well as the Core module in Rome. You will also select one optional module at Warwick.

Students on the MA in Visual and Material Culture of Ancient Rome will participate in the British School at Rome’s ‘City of Rome’ postgraduate course, a two-month residential programme. This involves a busy schedule of expert presentations and onsite seminars.

Admission to the course in Rome is subject to the discretion of the BSA/BSR and cannot be guaranteed. Students are responsible for funding their travel to Italy and for accommodation costs in Rome.

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This course enables you to apply the study of ancient material and visual culture to a particular historical and geographical context. You’ll undertake specialist research training in art, numismatics and epigraphy that will equip you for further PhD study in these fields, or for a career in museum work or education.

The course includes a core module in Approaching Ancient Visual and Material Culture, plus a core language module, as well as the Core module in Greece. You will also select one optional module at Warwick.

The MA in the Visual and Material Culture of Ancient Greece is the first in the UK to give you access to the postgraduate training courses of the British School at Athens, an institute for advanced research based in Greece. You will have the opportunity to spend two to three weeks in Athens or Knossos, following a full programme of site visits and seminars from visiting scholars.

Admission to the course is subject to the discretion of the BSA/BSR and cannot be guaranteed. Students are responsible for funding their travel to Greece.

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Book History is a dynamic and rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary study that examines the book as an artefact in material culture. This programme brings together theory and practice in new and innovative ways. We study the production, circulation and reception of books from manuscript to e-books, paying attention to the histories of reading and authorship.

The programme integrates traditional bibliography, advanced theoretical approaches, training in special collections, and hands-on experience. You will be taught by leading experts at the University’s renowned Centre for the History of the Book. Field trips and work placements will allow you to take advantage of the exceptional collections in Edinburgh.

The programme attracts outstanding students from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. The degree is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Programme structure

You will complete two core and two option courses, along with training in research methods. You will then complete a supervised, independently-researched dissertation on a topic of your choice.

Compulsory courses:

• Cultures of the Book
• Working with Collections

Option courses may include:

• Critical Theory: Issues and Debates
• Shakespeare's Sister: Archival Research and the Politics of the Canon
• Sex and God in Victorian Poetry
• Exploring the Novel
• Censorship

Work placement/internship opportunities

Work placements allow students to take advantage of the exceptional resources in Edinburgh for the study of books in order to gain hands-on experience that will be beneficial in their future careers.

Placements may take place internally, for example in the Centre for Research Collections at the University Library, or externally with several partner organisations.

You will receive training from the placement supervisor, and will undertake well-defined projects in the course of your placement, such as cataloguing, conservation, collation, digitisation and other kinds of work.

You will reflect on your placement in a poster presentation, and it will provide material for an academic essay. Regular academic oversight of the work placement will be provided by the Course Organiser.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme, you will have a firm grasp of:

• the extensive range of media forms and technologies, from manuscript to electronic text
• the issues surrounding conservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and the display and management of collections
• advanced archival research methodologies in manuscript and print

Career opportunities

This programme will equip you with the detailed knowledge and research skills you need to progress to a research degree and continue a career in academia; or you may pursue a career in publishing, libraries, and the cultural heritage sector. You will graduate with a number of highly transferable skills in communication, project management and analysis that will give you an advantage, whatever your chosen career.

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Are you interested in exploring classical material and visual culture, and its impact upon subsequent historical conceptions of antiquity? If so, this course is the ideal foundation for a career in museum work or education. It also equips you for further PhD study in related fields.

You will undertake specialist research training in art, numismatics and epigraphy, with museum visits forming an important part of the programme. Teaching comprises two core modules — one language module and the other focusing on issues of reception, historiography and museum display — plus your choice of optional modules.

Options can be taken from within the Classics Department or you may decide to study a module from a related department, such as History of Art. Over the summer, you will complete a supervised dissertation, enabling you to research independently an area of personal academic interest in more depth.

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Study at the cutting edge of post-medieval archaeological investigation.

Why choose this course?

Historical Archaeology is the study of relatively recent documented periods, from the end of the Middle Ages to the 21st century. It is one of the most rapidly expanding aspects of archaeology, dealing with many exciting issues that relate directly to the world we have inherited today, drawing on a diverse range of material and documentary sources.

The skills you develop working with material culture, landscapes and archival sources, as well as presenting short papers and writing essays and your dissertation, will provide an unrivalled insight into the past and present and prepare you for a wide range of jobs and careers, as well as further research.
-Explore dynamic and globally significant themes, from capitalism to colonialism.
-Gain practical training in analysing and interpreting evidence, from excavations and standing buildings to landscapes and material culture.
-Develop knowledge and skills that will give you a head start in many heritage, historic-environment and other post-graduate careers and research.
-Study in the archaeological capital of Britain – experience historical archaeology in action.
-Access state-of-the-art facilities, including laboratories, libraries and internationally important archives, resources and collections in York.
-Receive career and research advice and guidance from staff with significant professional knowledge and experience.

What does the course cover?
The MA in Historical Archaeology examines themes such as the development of consumption and capitalism, colonialism and globalisation from British and international perspectives. It builds out from the unique experience of Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to consider the global impact of changing economic, political and cultural values as the modern world took shape.

We examine data sources including excavated material alongside material culture from museums and collections, standing buildings, landscapes and documentary sources of all kinds, which relate to both the UK, its former colonies and the wider world.

Who is it for?
This course is ideally suited for students from a wide range of backgrounds, which need not necessarily include Archaeology. The course appeals to anyone interested in the material culture and landscapes of the post-medieval period. Past students have included graduates of History, Art History, Heritage, English Literature and many more subjects, as well as mid-career professionals looking to enhance their knowledge, expertise and qualifications.

What can it lead to?
The course provides you with highly valued and transferrable skills, knowledge and experience essential for a wide variety of careers. Many students go on to further study or take up employment with a range of organisations both within and outside the heritage sector, including the civil service and law firms, heritage consultancies and museums.

Careers

This course will give you a thorough grounding in the rapidly growing field of Historical Archaeology and equip you with valuable skills and experience for a career in this and related fields. It also provides valuable transferable skills which are recognised across a wide range of professional graduate careers.

By the end of the course you will:
-Be familiar with current research agendas and a broad range of issues in historical archaeology.
-Have detailed knowledge of topics and themes using material from Britain, Europe, North America, Africa and the Caribbean.
-Have developed key skills to organise information and arguments in a critical and independent manner in written form and in presentations.
-Have undertaken an extended piece of independent research on a topic of your choice in the field of historical archaeology.
-Have delivered a short lecture on a chosen topic in historical archaeology.

Course postgraduates have gone on to work with many organisations, including landscape and environmental consultancies, professional bodies, heritage organisations such as English Heritage and the National Trust, the media and museums.

Others have used the skills gained to pursue careers in other sectors, including:
-Local government and development
-Civil service and law
-Chartered surveying
-Computing and IT services
-Business and administration
-Marketing and public relations
-Education
-Accountancy and financial services

Others have gone on to pursue PhDs in the UK and overseas.

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Glass has remarkable properties; its transparency, durability and versatility have been explored in architectural and artistic contexts for thousands of years. Recent technological advances provide continuing opportunities for creative application. Its unique properties of transparency and interaction with light gives MA Glass students the opportunity to explore new possibilities and build specialist knowledge as a material for the future.

Course Overview

The MA Glass programme within the Contemporary Dialogues portfolio offers an exciting and innovative re-thinking of Postgraduate provision that reflects the strategic thinking of Swansea College of Art. The portfolio facilitates migration between diverse thematic disciplines, exploring new ideas and conceptual approaches to allow young artists and designers to confront the issues that face society today and into the future.

The portfolio’s ethos of collaborative dialogues through material practices provides an innovative model of design, fine and applied arts education. This development allows students from all pathways to experience and share creative practices and innovative mind-sets through inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary dialogues. This ethos is enhanced within each programme to stimulate ‘collaborative’ practices and experimentation across a broader spectrum of specialist fields, developing graduates with the contextual awareness, creative thinking and technical skills to operate at the forefront of their discipline.

During the course of your studies you will be supported by specialist staff, leading professionals and practicing artists through lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. We have exceptional traditional and digital facilities, housed in spacious purpose-build workshops. Through these, we encourage creative freedom within all of our students and support you in challenging conventional thinking and established practices and facilitate new technological advances across a broad range of disciplines. We have found that through collaborative experimentation and innovative design thinking our students are able to produce work that meets the challenges and respond to the demands of the 21st century.

Facilities include:
-Firing kilns for glass and ceramics
-Printmaking, Screen Printing and Digital Textile Technologies
-Traditional and Digital Stitch
-Wood, Metal, Clay
-Cutting Etching and Engraving Technologies - Waterjet, Laser, Plotter
-3D Printing and CNC
-Chemical and Digital Darkrooms
-Specialist computer facilities with commercial standard software

Modules

-Collaborative Dialogues (20 credits)
-Co-Existent Perspectives (20 credits)
-The Thought Experiment (20 credits)
-Explorative Research Praxis (60 credits)
-Confirmative Praxis (60 credits)

Key Features

Students use the Master's Programme for all kinds of reasons; to gain an extra qualification, to achieve a higher and more sophisticated level of practice, as well as to have supported research and development time in order to elevate themselves to a more professional plateau with their artwork.

In this century, glass as a material offers a unique place in design and architecture and there are very few institutions that offer the opportunity to explore this material, with particular reference to its applications in architecture. Swansea glass department has a long established reputation for glass and strong industrial links help underpin the educational experience for students. The history of the department enables a broad spectrum of approaches that draw on the historical, cultural and technological uses of this material. Glass in its many forms; mosaic, glaze, enamel and window façade covers a broad association of surfaces, which offers for the maker a rich and varied pallet. This is a hands-on course!

The main strands of the programme are: design and philosophy, material innovation and glass design. These themes are considered in the context of glass for the environment, to fulfill the need to develop innovative, sustainable and possibly universal solutions for a variety of architectural, public and private spaces.

The programme prides itself in newly equipped workshops that provide excellent specialist facilities including sandblasters, acid etching bay, cold working machinery, screen printing facilities for glass and an extensive range of glass and ceramic kilns for casting and decorative processing. Beyond this specialist equipment, you will also have access to an extensive range of facilities including an excellent library, open-access computer suites and workshops in other areas within the art school such as wood, metal, ceramics, 3D printing and water jet and laser cutting.

The teaching team consists of highly experienced glass artists and designers who are either engaged in professional practice or are research active, supported by industrially trained technical staff. This ensures that the course delivers a qualification and experience that is highly relevant to the changing needs of the industry and wider architectural glass community.

The department works closely with the Architectural Glass Centre, which often supports and advises the students on live commissions and commercial work. We also work with the CIRIC research centre within the faculty, with 2 members of this research centre specialising in glass. This provides research opportunities and access to high technology resources giving the students opportunities to link with creative industries infrastructure in the region as a potential starting point for future employment.

With an eighty year history the glass department benefits from strong support from Alumni and the local glass community as well as networks and connections from world-renowned glass artists.

Assessment

The main modes of assessment used on this programme are; studio projects, written assignments and seminar presentations.

Assessment at postgraduate level is reflected by your ability to reformulate and use relevant methodologies and approaches to address problematic situations that involve many interacting factors. It includes taking responsibility for planning and developing courses of action that initiate or underpin substantial change or development, as well as exercising broad autonomy and judgement. It should also reflect an understanding of the relevant theoretical and methodological perspectives and how they affect your area of study or work.

Career Opportunities

Students from the Master's Programme have gone on to many varied careers within the Architectural Glass Industry, Glass Studios, teaching and lecturing positions, in community arts and the cultural industries in general. Many have continued to practice as designers and artists and some have progressed to PhD study.

Possible career pathways have included:
-Establishing yourself as an artist, designer or maker
-Setting up a studio as a sole supplier or in a partnership with others
-Employed in specialist glass studios
-Engaging in freelance work on architectural and interiors projects
-Designing for industry or working in the glass industry
-Working on private and public commissions
-Working on art projects and community projects
-Other opportunities include arts administration, curating, teaching and mentoring, community work and arts editorial
-Continuation of studies to postgraduate level on our MA programme
-Further academic research leading to MPhil, or PhD is available

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Successful environmental policy depends on the ability of its makers to bring together scientific information, analytical thinking and an awareness of the legal, social and political realities of environmental regulation. This course has been designed to provide an intensive training in the relevant economic and legal concepts and techniques to equip you with the tools that will help you successfully design, implement and assess environmental policy in a variety of settings.

See the website http://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/directory/lelempepl

Course detail

MPhil courses offered by the Department of Land Economy share common aims. These are:

i) to enable students of a high calibre to pursue their education at an advanced applied level drawing on the primary disciplines of economics, planning and environmental policy, with additional specialisms in finance and law;

ii) to provide students with opportunities both to build on and develop material which they may have studied at undergraduate level as well as to broaden their knowledge base;

iii) to equip students with the necessary skills to pursue careers at a high level in a range of areas, including business and finance, civil service, public service, property professions, environmental agencies and organisations, national/international agencies and further study;

iv) to provide opportunities for education in a multidisciplinary environment so as to advance the understanding of cognate disciplines and their applications;

v) to provide opportunities for learning with colleagues from different social, economic and legal systems;

vi) to provide students with appropriate skills and experience to enable them to use information and resources critically and to equip them with the means to undertake their own research;

vii) to provide an educational environment with a strong research ethos that brings together students from a wide variety of backgrounds and fosters an international approach to common problems.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course, students will have acquired the following skills:

i) Knowledge and understanding of the subject matter of the various components of their course.

ii) Intellectual skills: the ability to study steadily, assimilate issues and large amounts of literature swiftly, evaluate countervailing positions and to produce succinct arguments to tight deadlines and to engage with those with whom they disagree. Particular methodologies used include: data evaluation, case evaluation, legal analysis, textual analysis, the convergence of theory and empirical data and advanced critical evaluation.

iii) Practical skills: identification and use of bibliographic materials, via libraries and electronically; taking notes effectively, thorough IT skills.

iv) Transferable skills: the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing; to work to deadlines and under pressure; to manage time; to set priorities; to formulate an argument; to work independently and with initiative; basic IT skills (email, data analysis and internet use); critical analysis; to present material in a seminar context; skills of analysis and interpretation; self-discipline, self-direction; and respect for other views. The ability to develop and present a major piece of written work.

v) Research skills: the ability to locate, utilise and organise a wide range of materials independently, on paper and electronically. The ability to assess and evaluate such material, to develop and pursue a critique of existing material. The ability to develop, structure and sustain a line of argument. The establishment of relationships with researchers in related areas. The ethical use of research material.

vi) Communication skills: the ability to marshal arguments and present them succinctly and lucidly. The ability to effectively criticise the views of others powerfully but fairly. The presentation of written material in a persuasive and coherent manner.

vii) Interpersonal skills: the ability to work with others in seminars and smaller groups towards common goals. The ability to share research data ethically. The ability to respect the views of others and to acknowledge deficiencies in one's own argument.

Format

Candidates study a total of eight modules, some of which are compulsory and complete a dissertation of not more than 12,000 words. Taught modules may be assessed by either written examination or coursework or by a combination of assessment formats.

The modules offered for this course are confirmed on an annual basis but may include:
- Quantitative research methods I
- Mixed research methods
- Fundamentals of environmental economics
- International environmental law I
- Environmental values
- Environmental policy assessment and evaluation
- International environmental law II
- Energy and climate change
- Rural environment: property, planning and policy
- Economic development and land use policies
- Climate change policy and land development

Plus optional modules from other taught MPhil courses offered by the Department of Land Economy.

Feedback and guidance is given to assist students in developing and drafting the dissertation research project. Feedback sessions are arranged by module leaders following examinations.

Assessment

A dissertation of between 10,000 to 12,000 words.

Assessment of subject modules varies and includes written examinations, individual and group project work. Some modules may be assessed in more than one format.

Assessment of subject modules varies, written examinations are used for some modules, these will normally be two-hour papers.

Continuing

Approval of an application to continue to the PhD degree will depend on three criteria:

1. Availability of a supervisor
2. The approval by the Degree Committee of a research proposal
3. The achievement of a minimum overall mark and minimum dissertation mark in the MPhil examination as prescribed by the Degree Committee in any offer of admission.

How to apply: http://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying

Funding Opportunities

There are no specific funding opportunities advertised for this course. For information on more general funding opportunities, please follow the link below.

General Funding Opportunities http://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/funding

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