Course Dates
Course details
Tutors
Key Features
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.
Welcome week (Week 0)
Purpose:
- personal introductions
- introducing the course
- useful reading
- personal objectives
Learning outcomes:
By studying this week, the students should have:
- become familiar with navigating around the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and from VLE to links and back
- test your ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sort out any problems with the help of the Technology Enhanced Learning team
- learn how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
- contribute to a discussion forum to introduce yourself to other students and discuss why you are interested in the course and what you hope to get out of your studies
Week 1: What is heritage?
Purpose:
- 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 outcomes:
- to familiarise ourselves with the history of heritage studies
- to develop an understanding of the key drivers in shifting definitions of heritage
Week 2: Stealing the past
Purpose:
- 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 outcome:
- to become acquainted with the drivers behind looting
- to gain an understanding of the impacts of looting
Week 3: Repatriating heritage
Purpose:
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 outcomes:
- 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
Week 4: Decolonising heritage
Purpose:
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 outcomes:
- 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
Week 5: The commodification or heritage
Purpose:
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 outcomes:
- 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
Week 6: what next?
- assessment of student learning
- assessment of student satisfaction
- encouragement of further study
This course is open to everyone, and you don’t need any previous knowledge or experience of the subject to attend.
Our short courses are designed especially for adult learners who want to advance their personal or professional development. They are taught by tutors who are expert in both their subjects and in teaching students of all ages and experiences.
Please note that all teaching is in English. You should have near-native command of the English language to get the maximum benefit from the course.
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 of self-study time, for example, reading materials, 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).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the 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 (using discussion boards etc).
Fees
The course fee includes access to the course on our VLE, personal feedback on your work from an expert tutor, a certificate of participation (if you complete work and take part in discussions), and access to the class resources for two years after your course finishes.
Concessions
For more information, please see our concessions information page.
Alison Fordham Bursary
University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education is proud to offer the Alison Fordham bursary, which is awarded to students who wish to study on one of our short online courses via our VLE, reducing the fee paid by 50%. The bursary is limited to a single award for each set of online courses.
Application criteria:
- applicants should set out their personal learning motivations since priority will be given to those who are returning to learning after an extended break, or have not previously engaged with fully online learning, or are seeking to use the online short course as a bridge towards undergraduate award-bearing study
- applicants who can demonstrate financial need
For more information, please see our bursaries information page.
A certificate of participation and a digital credential will be awarded to those who contribute constructively to weekly discussions, exercises and assignments for the duration of the course.
