Professor Ian Ralston

CURRICULUM VITAE

Professor Ian Ralston

revised: May 2022

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: The later prehistoric settlement record of non-Mediterranean France with particular reference to Limousin
Supervisor: Professor Stuart Piggott, FBA: External examiner, Professor Sir Barry W Cunliffe, FBA.

DLitt, University of Edinburgh, 2011: Studies in the archaeology of temperate Europe.

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 Later European Prehistory, University of Edinburgh;
      and Director, Centre for Field Archaeology, University of Edinburgh         1998–2000
Personal Chair in Later European Prehistory, University of Edinburgh                                    2000-2012
Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology                                                 2012-2019
Abercromby Emeritus Professor of Archaeology            2020-

HONOURS, MEMBERSHIP OF LEARNED SOCIETIES AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES:

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:

POSTGRADUATE (TEACHING)

I co-directed (following the appointment of the late Mr Roger Mercer as Secretary of RCAHMS) 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 was suspended in the early 1990s because of staffing shortages and is no longer calendared.

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 discontinued), all having completed their course (1 awarded Diploma).
1 MLitt completed at Aberdeen (K Sabine).
7 MPhil completed at Edinburgh (D Alexander, E Carver, E Cavanagh, J Horn, E Osborne-Martin, G Waters and S Werner)
32 PhDs completed at Edinburgh (K Aitchison, G Barclay, C Brown, R Ceron-Carrasco*, C Clarke, M Cook, M Cooper, G Cruickshanks, S Dennis, R. Faulkner-Jones, D Gooney, A Hoaen, M Holley, J Kenney, C Mamwell, O McIlfatrick, D McLaren, D Rocks-Macqueen, E Stammitti, S Stetkiewicz, A Tams*, N Thiemann, J Thoms*, R Toolis, L Verrill, G Warren, J Webster, S Wood, S Khorasani {Geography}, D Rose and A Watson {Classics} and S Werner {Geography}).
* Funded by Historic Scotland as part of CFA Archaeology's Bostadh project.

I have also assisted with the supervision of PhD students at U Lund (Sweden) {Dominic Ingemark: PhD awarded} and the Technical University of Berlin {Tanja Romankiewicz: PhD awarded} at the Université de Bourgogne, Dijon / Franche-Comté, Besançon (Anthony Lefort, PhD awarded 2015) and D Phil, University of Oxford (on my AHRC project with Prof G Lock: Jessica Murray, completed 2017); and currently U Ghent (with Prof J Bourgeois).

PRINCIPAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE WITHIN UNIVERSITY:

VISITING POSITIONS

PRINCIPAL MEMBERSHIPS OF NATIONAL ETC COMMITTEES:

and previously:

MAJOR LECTURES ABROAD

Ministry of Culture, Dublin (Celtic Routes); National Museum, Madrid
Universities of Brussels, Budapest, Paris 1 – Sorbonne-Panthéon, Paris – Ecole normale supérieure, Madrid-Complutense, University College, Dublin; Strasbourg / CAE Buvray 2006; Casa Velazquez / Autonoma Madrid 2006

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 4(2006), Archaeological Institute of America (East Tennessee branch, Knoxville 2006); several AFEAF conferences, most recently Bourges 2008 and Aschaffenburg 2010; Moscow 2009, Stuttgart 2009, Collège de France 2009;

MOST RECENT PLENARY LECTURE

July 17th, 2015 Invited plenary lecture, XV International Congress of Celtic Studies, University of Glasgow ‘Complexity and fragility in the early states of Iron Age Europe – the view from Bourges’

EXTERNAL EXAMINER FOR DOCTORATES / HABILITATION

University of Glasgow: 1990, 1999, 2000;
University of Sheffield: 1991;
University of Durham: 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007;
Bournemouth University: 2000;
University of Birmingham: 2002, 2005;
University of North Carolina: 1995;
Université de Paris I: (Sorbonne-Panthéon) 1998, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015 (co-tutelle with Universidad autonoma, Madrid, President du Jury);
Université de Bordeaux 3 (Président du Jury), 2010;
Technische Universität, Berlin, 2010;
Université de Toulouse 2(Président du Jury), 2011 & 2013;
Université de Bourgogne (Dijon) / Franche-Comté (Besançon) 2015;
University of Kent at Canterbury 2016/2017
Ghent University 2021

Habilitation

(Collège de France) 2003

EXTERNAL EXAMINER (Undergraduates and taught postgraduates)

Undergraduates: Universities of Glasgow, Nottingham and Southampton; University College, Cork

Postgraduates: Universities of Bradford, Nottingham and York; University of the Highlands and Islands; University of Nottingham

Postgraduate (thesis): Heriot-Watt University; Queen’s University, Belfast; University College, Dublin; UHIMI / Aberdeen

REVIEWS

Programme, REF etc reviews: Bradford University, Bournemouth University; University of Glasgow; University of Nottingham; Orkney College, University of the Highlands and Islands

WEBSITE: www.ianralston.co.uk