The MA equips studetns with the critical faculties to engage in further postgraduate research through an awareness of refined theoretical methods and how they can be used to interrogate a chosen archive. This unit re-presents the metroplois by mapping key developments in London's arhitecture and planning against the social and cultural framework of the city. This challenges the canon of presenting urban environments within the biographical frameworks of architects and patrons or as the result of socio-economic and political forces. Discursive sessions explore how London is at once an imagined community and an interaction of histories and place, which present the experience of a metropolis. The complexity of the different readings of London are revealed in the systems of representation and interpretation, the interaction of civic and national interests and issues of urban planning.
Students normally follow two research skills units.
Representation and the consumption of the past Introduces you to the new research field of representation in archaeology, and equips you with the necessary analytical skills to conduct research in this area. The course explores such issues as how museum and visual representations of the past shape our understanding of human history. The unit also explores the potential of archaeological imagery in constructions of the past. It provides a theoretical and methodological background to the interpretation of archaeological art. Introduces you to the wide range of visual media through which the past is presented.