Our Research

Introduction
Research Groups and Centres
Major Fieldwork and Other Research Projects
Graduate Research

Introduction

The Institute of Archaeology is a long-established international leader in the discipline, unique in the scale and diversity of its research and the global scope of its expertise and collaborative links. Its research covers fieldwork, laboratory analysis and conservation, artefact studies, and theoretical, synthetic, and analytical work across a range of perspectives. It has more than 60 research active staff, projects on five continents and in the Pacific, and wins regular and substantial research funding from a wide range of national and international sources. The Institute's key strategic research aims are:

to be internationally pre-eminent in the study, and comparative analysis, of world archaeology.
to maintain and enhance its reputation for the quality and breadth of its multi-disciplinary and thematic approach to the study of the human past.
to develop theory, method and practice in the study and management of cultural heritage in its social, political and economic contexts.
to be at the forefront of international research in archaeological sciences.

Central to realising these aims are:

the Institute's flexible structure of Research Groups and Centres with diverse research styles, including single scholar research, based on major groupings of research interests.
staff appointments with a wide range of geographical and technical expertise.
extensive international interaction through research, conferences and workshops, joint training programmes, international staff and student recruitment, and the hosting of visitors from around the world.
research with practical and theoretical implications beyond academia.
major investment in laboratory facilities.
a strong programme of PhD and early career development.

Research Groups and Centres

The Institute fosters departmental research through a set of five primary Research Groups of staff and graduate students:

The thematic orientation of the Research Groups cross-cuts traditional regional and period specialisations and encourages comparative perspectives. Under the overall umbrella of these groups, we develop more focused agendas through a series of research themes (for further details, please see the individual Research Group pages) and through a number of dedicated research centres, including the following:

the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity (CECD)
the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA)
the Centre for Applied Archaeology (CAA)

Major Fieldwork and Other Research Projects

We undertake fieldwork and other research in many areas of the world, covering the full spectrum of human history and a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Our Research Groups seek to give these efforts both support and coherence at departmental level and further details of individual projects are listed on individual Research Group pages (or see here for a worldwide map and set of project links).

Further information on dissemination of research results (books, papers etc) and other websites.

Graduate Research

Our large body of graduate students is also involved a significant amount of original work, both at Master and PhD level. They each are members of one of the department's main Research Groups, participate in further collaborative ventures that cross-cut these groupings (further details of graduate student research). Together with staff, they provide a thriving and diverse research community, and through a new programme of teaching assistantships and regular graduate seminars, we are keen to ensure that this work feeds rapidly back into the wider intellectual life the department.

This page last modified 5 February, 2009 by [IoA Webmaster]

UCL Research Publications:
a searchable online database

The Institute of Archaeology was ranked first in the Guardian Newspaper's league table (published in May 2008) of the 30 Institutions teaching archaeology in the UK.

We were awarded the high score of 23 out of 24 in the most recent assessment by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). This score was achieved as part of the QAA's review of all UK Archaeology Departments.