
University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute research postgraduate student Hannah Genders Boyd has been awarded her Masters by Research (MRes) – the institute’s first.
Hannah’s thesis was entitled Out of the Round, A Palaeoecological Investigation in Human-Environmental Interactions of Bronze and Iron Age Hut Circle Communities in Gairloch, Wester Ross and last Thursday she was successful in her MRes viva, with no corrections.

Speaking afterwards a delighted Hannah described her research masters as a “positive start” down the route to academic research and work in the heritage sector.
She added: “It’s been a challenging year studying through Covid, but I’m fortunate to have been supported by a great supervisory team through the process – remotely for the most part – with Scott Timpany, from the UHI Archaeology Institute; Tim Mighall from Aberdeen, and Althea Davies from St Andrews.
“The research masters has been a positive start down the route of academic research and work in the heritage sector – in many ways a baptism of fire — but I’ve grown and learnt a huge amount in the last 18 months.
“I’m now looking forward to embarking on a career in the sector – currently as a research assistant on a sustainable turf building project with the University of Edinburgh and, hopefully, on future projects where I am able to combine my fields of archaeology and sustainability.
“My thanks to Martin Carruthers, Ingrid Mainland, from the UHI Archaeology Institute, and my external examiner Eileen Tisdall, from the University of Stirling, for a really enjoyable viva.
“Discussing my research and its potential future developments and applications was a really encouraging conclusion to the project.”
All at the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute would like to congratulate Hannah for her hard work and passing with flying colours and no corrections.

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