MA Archaeology/ English Language

About this course

Archaeology and English language together form an unusually rich combination, because both disciplines are fundamentally concerned with how human beings leave traces and how we interpret them. Archaeology recovers the material record of past lives, reading objects, sites and landscapes to reconstruct societies that can no longer speak for themselves. English language study takes a scientific approach to language itself, examining how it is structured, how it varies across communities and time, how it is acquired and how it functions in social life. Both subjects train you to read evidence carefully and to resist premature conclusions, and both require an imaginative willingness to inhabit perspectives very different from your own. At Glasgow this programme is offered part time, allowing you to pursue both disciplines alongside other commitments. A year abroad is incorporated into the degree, providing the opportunity to engage with archaeology or language study in a different cultural and educational context. Within archaeology you will study the methods of excavation and analysis, the material culture of different periods and regions, and the theoretical frameworks that guide interpretation of the past. English language study will take you into phonology, grammar, semantics, sociolinguistics and the history of the English language, giving you analytical tools applicable to language in all its forms. Graduates combine skills in evidence-based inquiry, critical analysis and clear writing that open a wide range of career paths. Archaeology graduates work in heritage management, museum curation, commercial archaeology, conservation, teaching and research. English language graduates move into linguistics research, speech and language therapy (with additional training), education, publishing, lexicography, language testing and the analysis of language in legal or forensic contexts. Postgraduate study in either discipline or in related fields such as heritage studies, applied linguistics or ancient and medieval history is a natural continuation, and the combination of both subjects provides an unusually versatile academic foundation.

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