Archaeology/Theatre Studies

Archaeology and Theatre Studies is a combination that connects two disciplines concerned with human practice across time: one investigates the physical traces left by past societies, and the other investigates the performing arts as a social and cultural phenomenon. Both disciplines are fundamentally interested in what human beings do, how they create meaning and how they communicate with each other. The combination is unusual but coherent, and it opens up some interesting intellectual territory at the intersection of performance, ritual, space and material culture.

At the University of Glasgow, the programme develops your skills in both disciplines simultaneously. Archaeology is the study of how people in the past interacted with their world, through detailed analysis of objects, sites, monuments and landscapes. You will learn to excavate, record and interpret material evidence, and to understand how past societies organised themselves economically, politically and culturally.

Theatre studies examines performance as an art form and a social practice, from classical drama to contemporary performance, developing your ability to analyse scripts, productions and theatrical traditions with critical and historical rigour. The degree includes a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to study both subjects in a different academic and cultural context.

The part-time mode of delivery at Glasgow makes the degree accessible to students who cannot commit to full-time study.

Graduates of this combination work in heritage, museums and galleries, theatre and the arts, education, cultural organisations, community archaeology projects and academia. Postgraduate study in archaeology, heritage studies, theatre studies or performance studies is a natural continuation for those who want to develop specialist expertise.