Aims of the course
- to introduce the history of heritage management and museums
- to explore key contemporary debates in heritage studies
- to examine how heritage is affected by political and ethical concerns
Course content overview
Heritage is about the past in the present—what survives, what is valued, and what is selected to be preserved. Heritage is a contested domain in flux, with many ‘stakeholders’, layers of meaning, and uses.
This online course asks who owns the past? What places and practices are worthy of being deemed ‘heritage’? How does politics influence our understanding of heritage? If you are interested in these questions, then this course is for you. Join us as we explore some of the big questions about how to understand the role of the past in the present. Specifically, we will look at a range of pivotal and highly contested heritage debates, such as commodification, repatriation, illicit antiquities, and decolonisation.
If you are interested in tackling questions about how we think about our past, then this course is for you. During this course we will explore some of the most charged debates in heritage studies today through a mix of illustrated lectures, live discussions, videos, and readings.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online)
Orientation Week: 22-28 May 2023
Teaching Weeks: 29 May-2 July 2023
Feedback Week: 3-9 July 2023
Teaching week 1 - What is heritage?
What do we choose to pass down from generation to generation? Who does the choosing? What values are these choices based on? The term ‘heritage’ is not static. Definitions of the term have changed over time in response to shifting contemporary concerns and the recognition of regrettable omittances. This week will introduce a history of heritage to explore how and why our understandings of it have changed over time.
Learning objectives:
- to familiarise ourselves with the history of heritage studies
- to develop an understanding of the key drivers in shifting definitions of heritage
Teaching week 2 - Stealing the past
Who are the looters? Why do they loot? Who are the buyers? Why do they buy? How do the middlemen act as go-be-tweens? What is the impact of looting on the archaeological record and the origin locations?
Learning objectives:
- to become acquainted with the drivers behind looting
- to gain an understanding of the impacts of looting
Teaching week 3 - Repatriating heritage
Heritage items have been moved around the globe through the processes of trade, expropriation, and conquest. Collections, predominantly in the Global North, contain items which are considered to have national, spiritual, or identity values to other groups. Such collections can include the human remains of the ancestors of others. This week we will explore the complex debates around the questions of what should be repatriated and to achieve what aims.
Learning objectives:
- to expand our knowledge of salient repatriation cases
- to further our understanding of why certain repatriation agreements have been reached, been denied or remain in stalemate
Teaching week 4 - Decolonising heritage
Heritage has been mobilised as an instrument of power to stake claim to territories, deny the rights of others to them, and to discursively erase certain pasts from the public domain. Calls for the decolonisation of heritage reached a peak in the 1950s and 60s, as formerly colonised nations called for their heritage to better reflect the history of the new independent states. Such calls again came to the fore in the 2010s, as descendants claimed that earlier decolonisation attempts remained incomplete. Yet, the heritage of colonisation is also a part of history.
Learning objectives:
- to gain an overview of the contemporary and historic debates around the decolonisation of heritage
- to further our insights into the complex questions that heritage managers and community members grapple with when making decisions in such cases
Teaching week 5 - The commodification or heritage
Heritage has many values: social, economic, environmental, etc. However, over the last four decades heritage has become increasingly commodified. Governments demand that it pays its own way. Certain stakeholders seek to cash in on its contemporary value whilst some communities see it as a vehicle to enhance their future well-being. This lecture asks what is lost and what is gained (for who) through the commodification practice.
Learning objectives:
- to enhance our understanding of the different forms of values that are ascribed to heritage
- to gain the ability to begin to unpack the impact of the commodification of heritage
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Virtual Learning Environment
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards etc).
Certificate of participation
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
