Significance and the Museum of Antiquities

The Application

To apply for entry into HASS301 or HASS506, candidates must complete the online application form.

The Required Steps

To do a Significance Assessment Project for a HASSS301 or HASS506 Minor Research Project, candidates must:

  1. Contact Dr Hopwood to see if she is available to supervise the project.
  2. Choose the UNEMA collection you want to work on (Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italia, Near East, Rome; Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe, Oceania or Oriens).
  3. Select one artefact you will write the project on from a selection provided by Dr Hopwood.
  4. Read Significance 2.0 and undertake sufficient preliminary research to write a draft research proposal to submit to Dr Hopwood for vetting.
  5. (Please see how to write a research proposal and the resources provided by Dr Hopwood).
  6. Once Dr Hopwood has approved the application you can submit it through the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences online application form.

The Proposal

When writing your research proposal:

  1. Explain why Significance Assesessments are valuable (use Significance 2.0)
  2. Outline the methodology used to assess Significance (use Significance 2.0 pp. 22-25)
  3. Indicate that your project will contribute to the field by advancing knowledge of an artefact in UNEMA's holdings and contributing to the development of the museum's teaching and community engagement programs.
  4. Indicate if your project is providing a research capstone experience for your MA or MHIST coursework; and, how it enables you to demonstrate the acquisition of course learning outcomes and to develop a professional creative practice portfolio.
  5. Provide a targeted bibliography addressing specific cultural, artistic, historical, and/or technical developments of the object being researched, as well as relevant works on museum praxis and the writing of object histories (significance assessments).  Consult JSTOR, Google, and other museum collections.