ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY AT CORPUS
Archaeology and Anthropology has a long and distinguished history at Corpus, extending back to the time of William Stukeley (who is generally regarded as the first major ‘field archaeologist’) in the 17th century.Over the past 30 years the College has developed a particularly strong interest in these subjects, with a succession of Fellows working in many different areas of the world (Europe, Africa, South America, Asia) and attracting a continuous stream of students in all of the major branches of the subject (ie Archaeology, Social Anthropology, and Biological Anthropology).At present there are three senior members of the University Teaching Staff in the College, each covering one of the three Departments.Dr Carenza Lewis, of Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’, teaches in Archaeology for Corpus.
Corpus is a relatively small College, and we believe this is an advantage, allowing particularly close interaction between the students, supervisors, and Directors of Studies.We also have the enviable geographical position of being close to the centre of town, and only 5 minutes walk away from the main teaching departments and lecture rooms.If Corpus students are late for lectures, they can hardly blame it on the rush hour traffic!
The first year of the course is wide-ranging, and requires students to take four papers – one each in Archaeology, Social Anthropology, and Biological Anthropology, plus fourth more general paper.Most students opt to take an integrated paper combining the three main subjects as their fourth paper.With this background in Part I of the Tripos, students then choose one of the three main subject areas for more specialised study in their second and third years.In some cases students move from Part I of the Archaeology and Anthropology Tripos into a Part II in some other subject, such as History of Art, Oriental Studies, or Social and Political Sciences. None of these subjects restricts the choice of eventual career.In practice, many students go on to careers in business, banking, accountancy, teaching, social work, and many other fields, and seem to find that employers regard the very broad-ranging education provided by Archaeology and Anthropology as a highly productive recruiting ground for future employees.We have one of the best post-degree employment rates in the University.For much the same reason the College has a very broad-minded view of the kind of school subjects that are appropriate for potential applicants: unlike many other subjects, we are equally happy to admit students with backgrounds in the arts or the sciences, or both.
All in all, Archaeology and Anthropology at Corpus provides a stimulating and broad-ranging intellectual challenge: by no means an easy option, but one which gives undergraduates an open-minded and wide-ranging perspective on the modern world.