Applications are sought for an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, to be held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology in partnership with the British Museum, from 28th September 2009. The CDA provides funding for 3 years of full-time doctoral study, with enhanced support from the British Museum.
The primary aim of the PhD project is to assess regional variation in dress and personal appearance using the significant new dataset recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), in tandem with excavated material. The focus will lie on Late Iron Age and Roman (50 BC-AD 410) brooches, but other items of personal adornment (bracelets, pins, finger-rings) will also be considered. Patterning, with reference to potential differences in dress and perceived identity on a regional basis will be explored. The social distribution of brooches and other artefact types according to further dimensions of identity (such as status, age and gender) will also be examined. This project has a great deal of potential to contribute to current debates about cultural tradition and transformation in the Roman period. Items associated with personal appearance provide excellent evidence for the shaping of identities in this period, but brooch studies have hitherto focused primarily on typo-chronological issues. By comparing a sample of the PAS brooch data with examples derived from secure archaeological contexts and with other costume items, this project will build upon such work to examine bodily adornment as an important field of social display.
To be eligible for a full award, which covers tuition fees and a maintenance grant (£15,290 per annum in 2009/10), applicants should be normally resident in the UK. Applicants should have a good first degree and have (or be studying for) a postgraduate degree in archaeology or a closely related field. The project will be supervised by Dr. Andrew Gardner, MS. Sally Worrell and Dr. Roger Bland. In addition to supervision and training at UCL, the successful applicant will receive training in material culture study within the context of the British Museum and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The AHRC maintenance award will be supplemented by an additional £1000 per year and a further £500 expenses allowance by the British Museum, of which the student will also be a temporary member of staff.
Further particulars of the project can be found at our website http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/ or contact Dr. Andrew Gardner (andrew.gardner@ucl.ac.uk) for further information.
Application forms can be downloaded from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ admission/graduate-study/application-admission/ or are available from MS. Lisa Daniel, Graduate Programmes Administrator, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY (tel 020 7679 7499 email l.daniel@ucl.ac.uk).
Candidates should indicate on the application form under `Programme of Study’ that they are applying for the AHRC CDA studentship `Dress, Adornment and Identity in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain’. The personal statement should outline your reasons for applying, suitability for the award and any other relevant information.
Please return completed application forms, including two letters of reference and transcript of degree results, directly to Lisa Daniel at the address above, and not to the UCL Admissions Office as indicated on the form.
It is anticipated that interviews will take place at the Institute of Archaeology on 6th July.
The closing date for applications is Monday, 15th June 2009.
It sounds like a great opportunity to expand ones carrier in this field, and it should draw the best talent from across the country. I think it will also draw us closer to a full understanding about this period, its culture and eventual demise, after all its the Greek and Romain empires that brought us into the technological world in the first place.
Comment by osorio — July 5, 2009 @ 11:29 pm