Available as Masters or Diploma

Masters

Leicester is uniquely placed to offer one of the most exciting postgraduate programmes in the field of historical archaeology. With our combination of ancient historians and archaeologists, and the largest concentration of later historical archaeologists in the UK, this is the place to study historical archaeology.

Students will be introduced to theories and approaches relevant to classical, medieval and post-medieval archaeology, but with a focus on later historical archaeology in the north American sense, exploring issues such as colonialism, globalisation and capitalism, industrialisation, slavery and identity. The course fees include a week-long field-based exploration of historical landscapes.

This MA programme provides an exciting and challenging forum for tracing, debating and interpreting the archaeology of the modern world, from c. 1500 to the present. Available as a one-year full time campus-based course, or part-time distance learning over two years, it will equip students with the skills needed to develop their career trajectories in public, private and academic sectors.

The programme capitalises upon the expertise resident in the Centre for Historical Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at Leicester. The East Midlands itself has many exciting landscapes and buildings of this period available for field study and has easy access to the post-medieval ceramics collections in Stoke-on-Trent.

The unique nature of the data‐set available to archaeologists studying the recent past requires that they be familiar with a diverse range of artefacts, buildings and landscapes and the use of documents, informants and pictorial materials, which in turn require critical analysis, sensitivity to living populations and an understanding of the potential implications of archaeological research on the present. Therefore, this Masters programme provides a balance between theory and practice in the study of the recent past, through the core and optional modules. Few comparable MA programmes exist in Britain.

Our blend of expertise and approaches will ensure critical and current integrated engagement with the extant evidence and will provide detailed grounding in research skills. In addition to core modules, our choice of options enables students the opportunity to specialise in one or more key aspects of Historical Archaeology.

Diploma

The 120-credit Diploma lasts nine months and comprises all courses except the dissertation. Students must have attained a Masters level coursework average pass in order to proceed to the MA dissertation. You also have the opportunity to study for a Postgraduate Certificate, or to take the MA or other qualifications through our distance learning programme. The 120‐credit Diploma omits the dissertation.

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Further information

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