Applicable only to students admitted during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials

Admission

Program Name

Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials

Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials is an interdepartmental program. Interdepartmental programs provide an integrated curriculum of several disciplines.

Address

A210 Fowler Museum
Box 951510
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1510 

Phone

(310) 825-9407 

Email

acordts@ucla.edu  

Leading to the degree of

M.A. 

Admission Limited to

Fall 

Deadline to apply

December 15th (for odd-numbered academic years only) 

GRE (General and/or Subject)

GRE: General 

Letters of Recommendation 

3 

Other Requirements

In addition to the University's minimum requirements and those listed above, all applicants are expected to submit: A portfolio (not to exceed an 8 1/2 x 11 inch format), statement of purpose, and writing sample.

Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in one modern foreign language, have completed a minimum of 200 -- 400 hours of documented practical experience in conservation, one academic year of study in one of the following areas: Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, or Ethnography, and one academic year of study in each of the following areas: Art History (studies in archaeological or ethnographic materials and/or traditions preferred), General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and one other science (e.g., Physical Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Physics, etc.).

Applicants who majored in archaeology, anthropology, art history, cultural history, the sciences, or fields related to the study of past societies are preferred.

Those applicants who reach the final stages of evaluation will be interviewed in person as part of the evaluation process. 

Master's Degree

Advising

The director of the program serves as the graduate adviser. Each student selects a faculty adviser who agrees to serve as the student's committee chair and principal adviser. Student progress toward the degree is discussed each academic quarter by members of the Faculty Advisory Committee.

Areas of Study

Students should consult the program.

Foreign Language Requirement

Demonstration of proficiency in at least one modern foreign language is required. There are two options for fulfilling this requirement: (1) complete the third quarter in an introductory, regular sequence of the selected language at UCLA (or an equivalent course) with a grade of A or A-; (2) take a reading examination administered by the program; or (3) take a UCLA Foreign Language Department Placement Test to demonstrate equivalency to completion of the third quarter of instruction in a foreign language.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 84 units of graduate coursework taken for a letter grade are required, to be distributed as follows: 16 core courses; three elective courses; and eight units of Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials 598.  One of the three electives must be a course in a related department, such as Anthropology, World Arts and Cultures, Materials Science and Engineering, Atmospheric Sciences, etc. The remaining two elective courses may be chosen from a related department or a research project completed through enrollment in a 500-series course.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Eleven months of internship work are required: one 10-week summer internship between the first and second years of study, and one nine-month internship following the second year of study. To expose the student to both field and institutional environments, it is preferred but not required that one internship be associated with a field project and the other be within a museum. The field project may include work on an archaeological excavation within an ethnology field project, work at an indigenous cultural center, or at other similar venues. The collections project may include work at a museum or other collecting institution, or at a regional laboratory where collections are curated and conserved. All intern placement must be pre-approved by the program and will be developed in collaboration between the student and faculty.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

None.

Thesis Plan

Every master's degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research.

Each student organizes a research project in consultation with an appropriate adviser no later than the end of their first year. The research project includes some or all of the following aspects of conservation research and practice: examination of archaeological and/or ethnographic artifacts, assessment of the cultural context, analysis, experimentation with treatment or analysis techniques, and conservation treatment. The project likewise stresses the establishment of a research methodology that guides the development of the project. The results are presented in a paper of 30-50 pages to a three-member master's thesis committee for evaluation.  In light of the number of courses required for the degree program, students should carefully consider the subject and scope of their proposed thesis in terms of the feasibility to complete it within the time-to-degree guidelines for the program.

Time-to-Degree

The M.A. degree is to be completed within three years.

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

In addition to the reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for failure to fulfill the foreign language requirement or an unsatisfactory master's thesis. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination through a request for a hearing before the Executive Committee.

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