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After completing this course students are able to:
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engage with debates about the meanings and uses of the term ‘heritage’,
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synthesize interdisciplinary approaches to 21st century heritage and make active use of scholarly skills,
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explain the formation and evolution of the historic monument, collections, and heritage, informed by study in the fields of Art History, Anthropology and Science,
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analyze some of the dynamics of 21st heritage: globalization, expansion, collection management,
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apply their knowledge to real-life situations regarding monuments, collections, and different forms of heritage,
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integrate interdisciplinary scholarship on heritage and collections into the core of their liberal arts and sciences education,
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realize their own research paper departing from a focus on one or more of the dynamics of heritage,
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write their research findings in the form of a visually informed research paper.
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This course takes a broad, comparative approach to the historical development of heritage while going into depth through a range of case studies, both European and non-European. From the rise of the historic monument and expanding scope of Renaissance collections; to the classification and inventory of national antiquities in the 17th and 18th centuries. The founding of national museums, whether commercially and scientifically-based, as with the British Museum (1759), or according to the revolutionary model of the Louvre Museum (1793), reflected core values of the Enlightenment: democracy, rationality and knowledge marked a new era of citizenship – for both subjects and objects. The vandalism unleashed by the French Revolution engendered efforts to conserve and classify as patrimoine royal assets otherwise vulnerable to destruction. Nineteenth-century restoration debates give insight into the ruptured sense of time perpetrated by the industrial revolution. Ethnographic collecting attempted to preserve a record of human groups whose arts and culture, it was believed, would disappear under colonial rule. The 20th-century development of international professional organizations, conventions and the creation of new categories of heritage, such as industrial, natural and intangible, reflect the unprecedented expansion but also the frictions generated by heritage.
The course examines how and why these shifts took place by engaging with scholarly literature and debates in art history, history of science, and anthropology; and by means of case studies. The optional excursion to London in the mid-term break to visit museums and meet professionals can add a further dimension to the student’s knowledge of practical aspects of contemporary heritage institutions including collection management, conservation, research, exhibition and education.
Format
The course is divided into three content sections: the first two before mid-term, and the third after mid-term, each with its own written assignment. The final weeks of the semester will be devoted to writing a research essay on a topic of the student’s own choice. There will be a number of plenary sessions to ensure course cohesion throughout. There will be small assignments to support the research process and individual meetings to support the writing process of the term paper throughout the semester. The optional excursion is highly recommended to those who plan to undertake an internship.
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