While the graduate program does not mandate either fieldwork or museum experience, such practical engagement with the field is strongly encouraged and every effort made to facilitate student opportunities in these areas.

Fieldwork

In practice, almost all students invariably spend time in the field, either before or during, their graduate career. Fieldwork can, and should, take various forms and ideally exposes graduates to a wide range of methodologies and techniques, including excavation, regional survey, artifact analysis, and the restudy of material from previous projects. Students are particularly encouraged to become involved in projects appropriate to their individual research concerns (see Fieldwork Opportunities). Financial support for fieldwork expenses (especially travel) is available from the Graduate School and the Joukowsky Institute.

For more on the Joukowsky Institute's fieldwork, please visit our Fieldwork pages.

Museum Experience

The acquisition of museum or other collections-based experience is a growing dimension in graduate training in archaeology. Apart from its own small collection of coins and antiquities, Joukowsky Institute students benefit from the proximity of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum and other regional collections (such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum in New York). Museum experience is also possible through courses and exhibits coordinated through the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, as well as through the M.A. in Public Humanities at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage.

For more on visiting and working with museums and collections, please see the Museums and Collections page.