MPhil in Archaeology
MPhil in Archaeology (Archaeological Heritage and Museums)
Co-ordinator: Dr M.L.S. Sørensen. Other staff involved with the courses are Dr R. Boast (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology), Dr G. Carr, Dr L. Janik, Dr D. Viejo-Rose (the CRIC project), and various external lecturers.
This MPhil teaches Heritage Studies and Museums, covering the core issues and approaches within the field of heritage generally (including tangible and tangible, movable and immovable heritage) and museums specifically. It traces the development of heritage as a public enterprise whether in the form of museums or heritage organisations and legislation, and focuses on the ways this field has expanded and the core issues that now defines it. These include:
- The historical development of museums and heritage institutions
- The concept of value, its historical development, ways of assessment and contestation
- The links between heritage and identity
- The political dimensions to heritage and museums
- Ethics
- The management structures, and the divisions of tasks and responsibilities between different kinds of organisations
- The development of `heritage tools' such as laws and organisation
- The public—the actors, from international bodies to local communities
The cross-cutting concerns are to develop insight into the historical development of the fields and to understand how these are continuously developing practices and concerns responding to social needs as well as established practices and power relations.
This course option is appropriate both for students of archaeology who want to specialise in heritage and museums and to students coming from other disciplines wanting to enter these fields of studies. The general structure of this MPhil follows that of the structure of the MPhil in Archaeology but expect the students to take the three specialised heritage and museums papers:
- The Socio-politics of the Past (Paper G29) This module is lecture based, but also includes seminars and various small-group discussions
- Museums: History, Theory and Practice (Paper G30) This module is lecture based, but also includes seminars, various small-group discussions, and fieldtrips
- Management of Archaeological Heritage (Paper 31) This module is lecture based, but also includes seminars, various small-group discussions, and fieldtrips
This combination of papers allows students to develop specialised in-depth knowledge of the connecting fields of heritage and museums, applying what they learn in seminars and museums practicals.
In addition, students take the Research Skills module and write a 15,000 words dissertation on a topic relating to heritage or museums. This offers the students the opportunity to conduct independent original research on a topic selected by them under guidance of the academic staff. The dissertation may be based on original fieldwork (surveys, observations, archival) or library based. Some recent MPhil heritage and museums topics include:
- The politics of display: Public cast galleries enter the twenty-first century.
- Two Way Street: Historic street names and sense of place.
- Whose heritage? Whose past? The cultural construction of identity in Taiwanese museums.
- The creation of historic environments: The case study of the Acropolis.
- Archaeology and Nationalism: The use of the past in the forging of Turkey.
- In defence of oblivion: The poetics of forgetting in Cultural Heritage Management.
- Propaganda, looting and relics from an idealized past: Collection of antiquities as a healing mechanism and the implications for the illicit antiquities trade in Cambodia.
The students will all be members of the Heritage Research Group, and be actively involved (if they wish) in planning its activities including the annual Cambridge Heritage Seminar.
For further information, contact Dr M.L.S. Sørensen, co-ordinator for this MPhil option, or Dr Elizabeth DeMarrais, overall MPhil co-ordinator for the Department of Archaeology.