'We experienced tradition and culture as living things. I learned more about how to learn in five days than I ever thought possible.'
MLitt Student, 2014
The launch pad for the MLitt programme is the Field School at the start of the academic year, a week-long immersion in Scottish tradition and an introduction to the nuts and bolts of fieldwork. The Field School provides students with a vital, practical foundation for the year's academic coursework and dissertation fieldwork.
We begin with a series of lectures dealing with the basic concepts of Ethnology, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology before engaging with aspects of culture from Neolithic times to the present.
Along the way, we consider the essential issues of ethics and reflexivity and, through meetings with people and places that exemplify our approach to studying culture in context, we delve into such varied subjects as music, oral narrative, cultural tourism, history, identity, landscape, and community.
In addition to this, shorter field trips take place at other times of the year. In the past these have included visits to fire festivals, local castles, fishing villages, and the ba games in the Borders.
More information on each year's Field School will be given to students on the induction day of their programme.