Professor Ian Ralston
CURRICULUM VITAE
revised: December 2007
POSITION: Professor, Archaeology unit, School of Arts, Culture and the Environment, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 57
STATUS: Married: one son; one daughter
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION: 1968-1972; post-graduate (full-time: Major Scottish studentship, Scottish Education Department) Jan 1973–Oct 1974
DEGREES AWARDED:
MA Honours Archaeology, First Class; University of Edinburgh; 1972
PhD, University of Edinburgh, 1983: thesis The later prehistoric settlement record of non-Mediterranean France with particular reference to Limousin
Supervisor: Professor Stuart Piggott, FBA: External examiner, Professor Barry W Cunliffe, FBA.
UNIVERSITY CAREER SINCE GRADUATION:
Research Fellow in Archaeology, University of Aberdeen 1974-1977
Lecturer in Geography/Archaeology, University of Aberdeen 1977-1985
Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Edinburgh 1985-1990
Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Edinburgh;
and Director, Centre for Field Archaeology, University of Edinburgh 1990-1998
Personal Chair in Archaeology, University of Edinburgh;
and Director, Centre for Field Archaeology, University of Edinburgh 1998–2000
Personal Chair in Archaeology, University of Edinburgh 2000-
MEMBERSHIP OF LEARNED SOCIETIES AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES:
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2006
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1988
Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, 1987
Member, Equipe de Recherches Archéologiques UMR-126-6 now UMR-8546-6, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris, France 1984
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: 1969
MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS:
1. Temperate European later prehistory, with particular emphasis on the settlements and emerging complexity of Iron Age France.
2. British prehistory (particularly Scotland) from the Mesolithic to the post-Roman period. My principal research area has been eastern Scotland N. of the Forth; my main period interests lie in protohistory (first millennia BC / AD).
3. Applied archaeology, especially the development of appropriate frameworks for applied research within 'polluter pays' archaeology.PRINCIPAL RESEARCH GRANTS:
c. £60k total support from Historic Scotland and antecedent bodies for fieldwork and excavations in eastern Scotland.
c. £45k from SERC in support of a joint project with Dr G M Coles on acritarchs and fungal spores (conducted by Dr Ciara Clarke)
Over the decade from its inception in 1990, the Centre for Field Archaeology obtained c. £5m in external funding (all carrying overheads at rates required by Unived / ERI, except in respect of teaching functions e.g. the Angus and South Aberdeenshire Field Project) as research grants, consultancy and contracts moneys from central and local government, overseas agencies, public companies and individuals. Some of the research component of this work is being completed in the private sector, given the University’s decision to disengage from this domain following the Frontline Report. CFA Archaeology Ltd operates successfully in the private sector and is presently on target to turn over in excess of £1 million / annum by 2005
The mont Beuvray project at which much of my fieldwork has been based until the mid-1990s was funded from a number of French central and local government sources, notably as a Grand Projet of the late President Mitterand, and substantial facilities and staffing assistance has been made available for my participation in this project. The approximate “cash equivalent” value of my excavations with French colleagues would be c. £300k. I subsequently contributed as the academic advisor to the reconstruction of the gate revealed by our excavations. This cost approximately £0.25m.
Recent excavations in Bourges (Chemin de Gionne, Lazenay; Carrières de Bachon, Lazenay; Port Sec Nord and Hotel Dieu) in collaboration with Dr Olivier Buchsenschutz, Ecole normale supérieure, M Pierre-Yves Milcent, U of Toulouse, and M Jacques Troadec, Municipal archaeologist, Bourges, have been funded substantially from French sources and administered by the Ville de Bourges, but with small grant support from the British Academy. With support from the Ville de Bourges, a major excavation (Port Sec Sud: approximately three months each summer), which will cost several hundred thousand euros(up to 850k; approximately 150k euros / season), is under way: fieldwork began in early summer 2005 and is scheduled to last for several years.
POSTGRADUATE (TEACHING)
I co-directed and contributed to the Diploma/MSc in Cultural Resource Management Studies, run jointly with the Department of the History of Art. This course, the first MSc offering from the Dept of Archaeology, and taught with substantial assistance from Historic Scotland, English Heritage, RCAHMS etc has been suspended since the early 1990s because of staffing shortages. I now contribute to the teaching and dissertation supervision of postgraduates on the unit’s MSc programmes.
POSTGRADUATE (RESEARCH) SUPERVISION:
On applied archaeological topics (e.g. battlefields; presentation of Whithorn; impact of forestry); environmental topics; and Scottish and European later prehistory
9 MSc students (MSc in Cultural Resource Management Studies; now in abeyance), all having completed their course (1 awarded Diploma).
1 MLitt completed at Aberdeen (K Sabine).
4 MPhil completed at Edinburgh (E Cavanagh, E Carver, S Werner, D Alexander)
12 PhDs completed at Edinburgh (J Webster, J Kenney, C Clarke, M Holley, A Hoaen, G Warren, G Barclay, R Ceron-Carrasco*, A Tams*, J Thoms*, L Verrill, A Watson {Classics}). * Funded by Historic Scotland as part of CFA Archaeology’s Bosta project.
I have also assisted with the supervision of a PhD student at U Lund (Sweden) {Dominic Ingemark: PhD awarded}.
I am presently supervising (as first or second supervisor) 8 MPhil / doctoral students working on eastern Scottish Iron Age material culture, regional differences in oppida systems in temperate Europe, Bronze Age child burials (with Dr David Clarke, National Museums of Scotland), Scottish beaker and other early bronze age graves (with Dr Alison Sheridan, National Museums of Scotland), the archaeology of the First World War on the western Front, the settlement record on both sides of the North Channel in the greater Iron Age (with Dr William Mackaness, Institute of Geography), early chapel sites in Argyll (with Dr James Fraser, Celtic), and Scottish Iron Age architecture (with School of Architecture, Technical Univ of Berlin); and Neolithic architecture in Jordan (with Dr Bill Finlayson, CBRL).
Samantha Dennis (PhD*); Angela Goodhand (M Phil* ); Catherine MacGill (PhD ); Orlene McIlfatrick (PhD); Dawn McLaren (PhD*); Erin Osborne-Martin (PhD ); Tanja Romankiewicz (PhD/ TU Berlin); Geoff Waters (M Phil*); Shelly Werner (PhD);Veronica Wolf (PhD*)
PRINCIPAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE WITHIN UNIVERSITY:
Director, Non-graduating Students, Faculty of Arts, 1990-2
Director, Centre for Field Archaeology (the University's applied archaeological unit) 1990 – 2000
Convener, Faculty of Social Sciences Library Committee; and member (latterly Vice- Convener), University Library Committee 1994 - 1999
Chairman, Board of Examiners, Department of Archaeology (to 1998)
VISITING POSITIONS
Spring semester 2006: Brown Fellow, Dept of Anthropology, The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, USA.
Professor, Laboratoire d’Archéologie, Ecole Normale supérieure, Paris, France: April 2001.
Visiting lecturer, Institute of Archaeology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary: Spring 2000.
PRINCIPAL MEMBERSHIPS OF NATIONAL ETC COMMITTEES:
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Vice-President 2007-
Chair, Treasure Trove Advisory Panel, now Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel (appointed by the Scottish executive from January 2004: advising Q<R).
Trustee, The Alcock Trust for Historical Archaeology, University of Glasgow, from 2005.
Member, executive committee, Standing Committee for Archaeology (2001-04); member Standing Committee for Archaeology; 2007 elected Chair SCFA.
Steering Committee member, ESSENCE 2006 (UHIMI Orkney College).
Institute of Field Archaeologists: Chairman (session 1991-2); previously Vice-Chairman, Secretary of Career Development and Education committee, and Council member; Chairman, Scottish Group (1990-92).
Council for Scottish Archaeology - President (1996 - 2000) (and thus a member of the Executive Board of the Council for British Archaeology), previously vice-Chair.
and previously:
Council of British Archaeology: member, Education Committee (1993-98)
Scottish Environmental Standards Group: member (as Chair, SGIFA, 1990-92).
National Trust for Scotland: Council member (representing Society of Antiquaries of Scotland) and member of sub-committee investigating the development of archaeology in the Trust until 1993
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: first Editor of its Monograph Series, 1977-88; former Councillor, joint conference organiser (Aerial Photography) and member of various committees.
Scottish Archaeological Forum: former Chairman; conference organiser (Archaeology & Environment)
MAJOR LECTURES ABROAD
Centre archéologique européen, mont Beuvray, Burgundy, Casa Velazquez, Madrid
Ministry of Culture, Dublin (Celtic Routes); National Museum, Madrid
Universities of Brussels, Budapest, Paris, Madrid-Complutense, University College, Dublin
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001), University of the South, Tennessee (2001, 2006), Southern Anthropological Association / University of West Florida, Pensacola (2006), Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro (2006), University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2006), Archaeological Institute of America (East Tennessee branch, Knoxville 2006)
EXTERNAL EXAMINER FOR DOCTORATES / HABILITATION
University of Glasgow: PhD, 1990, 1999, 2000;
University of Sheffield: PhD, 1991;
University of Durham: PhD, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007;
Bournemouth University: PhD, 2000;
University of Birmingham, PhD, 2002, 2005;
University of North Carolina: PhD, 1995;
Université de Paris I: (Sorbonne-Panthéon) PhD, 1998, 2002, 2005;
Habilitation (Collège de France) 2003
EXTERNAL EXAMINER (Undergraduates and taught postgraduates)
Undergraduates: (previously) University of Glasgow; (currently) University of Nottingham
Postgraduates: (previously) Universities of Bradford, York and University of the Highlands and Islands; (currently) University of Nottingham
Postgraduate (thesis): Heriot-Watt University; Queen’s University, Belfast
EXTERNAL ADVISER
I currently act as adviser to two Historic Scotland funded projects: on Galloway promontory forts (Mr Ronan Toolis, AOC Archaeology) and Mine Howe (Ms Jane Downes, UHI Kirkwall College).
WEBSITES: www.ianralston.co.uk & www.archeo.ens.fr/spip.php?article172