How does the English/British system work?  Does it work? I'll confine
myself to the University system, and to 'historical archaeology'... it
will be far from authoritative, so anyone else who wants to chip in please
do so...
 
There must be 20 or so undergraduate programs in archaeology in Britain,
with more 'on the fringes' (eg. Conservation and Heritage Management at
Bournemouth).  Of these, only a few offer courses or have the potential to
sustain research in post-1500 archaeology, and in most cases it's a matter
of one or two people there rather than a large school. These include
Sheffield, Lampeter, Leicester, Durham, York, Nottingham (I've almost
certainly missed some; others write in please). In some cases this is
bracketed under 'industrial archaeology' though the syllabus varies from
course to course. You could also pursue material culture studies at places
like the School of English Local History at Leicester.  I don't know of
any post-1500 courses within the 'golden triangle' of London, Cambridge
and Oxford, though the Dept of Extra-Mural Studies at both Oxford and
Cambridge have good people.  I think it's revealing that the Depts of
Archaeology at Oxford and Cambridge have no post-1500 historical
archaeologists.
 
I could 'rank' these but, Jeff, you are quite right, a)it all depends what
you want to do, the departments listed above are all very different one
from another, and b)it's not a constructive discussion to have on the
list. The recent national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) ranked
departments as a whole and I believe Andrew Selkirk's website will have
the details, though I hope he has revised the omissions from the last
summary he published...  The only comment I will make is that Lampeter
were done a massive injustice by the RAE; I haven't met a colleague yet
who disagrees.
 
In terms of structure, Mary Ellin, you do a full-time three-year
undergraduate course, usually 80-90% in archaeology, though post-1500
stuff is rarely a large part of the core curriculum.  Most people then do
a full-time one-year MA course before going on to do research.  The places
listed above will all give you the opportunity to specialise in post-1500
stuff, though I think only ourselves and Sheffield offer courses in
'post-medieval archaeology'.  (Though things are changing very fast and
I'm open to correction.  Anyone out there from Leicester in particular
like to update the list on what they offer?). After your MA, Ph.D.
research is full time, and usually with no course-work.  As a result it
usually takes three-four years to complete.
 
Of course, we have our own departments rather than being subsets of
Anthropology; links with History have always been more important; hence
the close relationship between archaeology and history and also, in part,
the limited impact of New Archaeology.
 
Hope that's of some use, and as I said, I'm open to correction.
 
Dr Matthew H Johnson           Windy Matt was a Texas man -
Dept of Archaeology            Well, he could rope, you bet.
University of Durham           He swore the beast he couldn't tie -
South Road                     Well, he hadn't found him yet...
Durham DH1 3LE
U.K.
Tel 0191 374 4755
Fax 0191 374 3619
 
On Fri, 30 May 1997, Mary Ellin D'Agostino wrote:
 
> Yes please!  How does the English system work? I've never been able to piece
> together the bits and pieces I have picked up....
>
> Mary Ellin D'Agostino
> [log in to unmask]
>
> At 11:10 AM 5/30/97 +0100, you wrote:
> >...  Perhaps a
> >more fruitful debate would be to talk about the merits and demerits of the
> >academic systems of different countries and where historical archaeology
> >fits in to these.
> >
> >
> >Dr Matthew H Johnson           Windy Matt was a Texas man -
> >Dept of Archaeology            Well, he could rope, you bet.
> >University of Durham           He swore the beast he couldn't tie -
> >South Road                     Well, he hadn't found him yet...
> >Durham DH1 3LE
> >U.K.
> >Tel 0191 374 4755
> >Fax 0191 374 3619
> >
> >On Fri, 30 May 1997, Scott Crull wrote:
> >
> >> Perhaps Durham is good, as I know of an American (from Sheffield Univ.) whi
ch
> >> also goes there, but Sheffield is still considered the #1 Archaeological
> >> RESEARCH facility in Europe.
> >>
> >>
> >> Scott
> >>
> >
> >
>