Postgraduates in the Social Anthropology and Museum Studies programmes are fully integrated into academic life in Aberdeen. All graduate research students are normally provided with personal computers, office space and access to an excellent central computing service. Postgraduate students also have access to the University's well stocked library, as well as rare manuscript and printed materials in Special Collections. Aberdeen University's Marischal Museum holds nationally and internationally significant ethnographic collections. The Elphinstone Institute holds rare collections of books and audio recordings from North East Scotland.
Training workshops are held at regular intervals throughout each academic year for postgraduate research students and staff. Pre- and post-fieldwork events are organised jointly with other Anthropology departments in Scotland under the ESRC Scottish Training in Anthropological Research programme (STAR). Students at Aberdeen also take part in the University's programme of training in generic skills organised by the Centre for Academic Development.
All these provide excellent opportunities for research training and the transfer of ideas, knowledge and experience between students in a supportive environment.
The Graduate Programme organises a weekly research seminar to which visiting speakers are invited, as well as occasional lectures by distinguished academic visitors. Postgraduate research students also present their work to a student-led seminar and attend and present at the full Departmental seminar. Students are also supported in attending national and international academic conferences.
The Graduate Programme is closely linked with:
- Marischal Museum, offering research opportunities in the field of material culture studies;
- The University's research theme on The North, which brings together a wide variety of academics involved in research in Scotland, the sub-Arctic and the High Arctic.
- The Elphinstone Institute, undertaking research into the language, tradition and history of North-East Scotland.
We also work with many other Departments and Schools across the University, in teaching, supervision and research.
Postgraduates are encouraged to think about career planning with the help of the University's Careers and Employability Service who have a dedicated staff for postgraduates. Some destinations of PhDs from the Department are on the recent theses page.