Heritage and Museum Studies

You are required to carry out independent research and produce a 2500 word essay written to the highest academic standards with full and complete references (reference lists will not count towards the word count).
You must choose a topic from the list below:
1. All heritage is essentially dissonant. Critically assess and discuss this statement, drawing on a range of examples, what implications, if any, does this statement have for our understanding of heritage and how we might manage and conserve it?
2. What challenges does the recent emphasis on intangible heritage pose to traditional ways of thinking about and managing heritage?
3. How does an emphasis on community and civic engagement challenge the power relations behind the AHD?
4. Heritage tourism results in the commodification of the past and the ?dumbing down? of interpretive material. Discuss this statement in the context of an assessment of the relationship of tourism with heritage. Is tourism something that should be regarded with suspicion by heritage professionals or is it the raison d’?tre of the heritage and museum sectors?
5. Museum and heritage interpretation has traditionally been defined by its educational aims. Is education the only way that museums and heritage sites are used? Should education be the primary concern of interpretation?
6. In what ways may ICT open up the way heritage is used and understood? Undertake your own research and find an example of a way in which ICT is being used to express or define heritage. Discuss how this example may challenge or extend our understanding of heritage as a social and cultural phenomena.

You are required to use the course readings as the reference list to explore the topic you have chosen. The course readings are as follow:
The heritage Industry debate
Required reading:
Harrison, R. 2010 ?What is heritage?. In R. Harrison (ed) Understanding the Politics of Heritage, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Hewison, R, 2007. Brideshead revisited. In L. Smith (ed) Cultural Heritage: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
Samuel, R. 1994. Theatres of Memory. London: Verso, pp. 259-285.

Supplementary Reading
Davidson, G. 1991. The meanings of ?heritage?. In G. Davidson and C. McConville (eds) A Hertiage Handbook, North Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Gentry, K. 2015. ?The Pathos of Conservation? – Raphael Samuel and the Politics of Heritage, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21(6):561-576
Harrison, R. 2013. Heritage: Critical Approaches. (chapter 5). London: Routledge.
Lowenthal, D. 2015. The Past is a Foreign Country, Cambridge: CUP. (Second edition)
Wright, P. 1985 On Living in an Old Country. London: Verso.

Heritage as a discourse
Required reading:
Benton, T. and Cecil, C. 2010. Heritage and public memory. In T. Benton (ed) Understanding Heritage and Memory, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Smith, L. 2006 Uses Of Heritage, London Routledge (chapter 1).

Supplementary Reading
West, S. and Ansell, J. 2010. A history of Heritage. In S. West (ed) Understanding Heritage in Practice, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Smith, L. and E. Waterton 2012. Constrained by common sense: the Authorised Heritage Discourse in contemporary debates. In John Carman, R. Skeats, and C. McDavid (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The world heritage list: beauty pageant or preservation tool?
Required reading:
Donnachie, I. 2010. World Heritage. In In R. Harrison (ed) Understanding the Politics of Heritage, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Byrne, D. 1991. Western hegemony in archaeological heritage management, History and Anthropology, 5:269-276.
Meskell, L. 2002. Negative Heritage and Past Mastering in Archaeology. Anthropological Quarterly 75(3): 557-574

Supplementary Reading
Arantes, A. A. 2008. Diversity, heritage and cultural politics, Theory, Culture and Society 47(7-8): 290-296.
Labadi, S. 2007. Representations of the nation and cultural diversity in discourses on world heritage, Journal of Social Archaeology 7: 147-170.
Munjeri, D. 2007. Tangible and intangible heritage: from difference to convergence. In L. Smith (ed) Cultural Heritage: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
Cleere, H. 2001. The uneasy bedfellows: universality and cultural heritage. In R. Layton, P. G. Stone and J. Thomas (eds), Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property, London, Routledge.
Smith, L. 2006. Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge, pp. 87-102; 106-114.
UNESCO http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/
UNESCO: Global Strategy http://whc.unesco.org/en/globalstrategy

Heritage and communities of interest
Required reading:
Hall, S. 2007 [1999] Whose Heritage? Un-settling ‘The Heritage’, Re-imaging the post-nation. In L. Smith (ed) Cultural Heritage: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
Littler, J. and Naidoo, R. 2007 [2004]. White Past, Multicultural Present: Heritage and National Stories. In L. Smith (ed) Cultural Heritage: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
Smith, L. and E. Waterton 2009. Heritage, Communities and Archaeology. London: Duckworth.
Chapter 4.

Supplementary Reading
International Journal of Heritage Studies, 16(1-2), 2010. Special issue on community heritage.
Tunbridge, J. and Ashworth, G. 1996. Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict, Chichester: J. Wiley.

Heritage and Indigenous Rights
Required reading:
Harrison, R. and Hughes, L. 2010. Heritage, colonialism and postcolonialism. In In R. Harrison (ed) Understanding the Politics of Heritage, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Langford, R. 1983. Our heritage- your playground, Australian Archaeology, 16:1-6.
Lowenthal, D. 2006 Heritage wars, spiked. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/254/(accessed 11 July 2014).

Supplementary Reading
Andrews, T.D. and Buggey, S. 2012. Canadian Aboriginal cultural landscapes in praxis. In K. Taylor and J. Lennon (eds) Managing Cultural Landscapes, Routledge.
Greer, S. 2010. Heritage and empowerment: Community-based Indigenous cultural heritage in northern Australia. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 16(1-2):45-58.
Hemming, S. and Rigney, D. 2010. Decentring the new protectors: Transforming Aboriginal heritage in South Australia, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 16(1-2):90-106
Smith, L., Morgan, A. and van der Meer, A. 2003. Community-driven research in cultural heritage management: The Waanyi Women?s History Project, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 9(1):65-80.
Smith, L. Uses of Heritage, London: Routledge, chapter 8.

Does tourism result in the commodification of the past?
Required reading:
Ashworth, G. J. 2009. Do tourists destroy the heritage they have come to experience? Tourism Recreation Research 34(1): 79-83.
Poria, Y. R. Butler, and D. Airey 2003. The core of heritage tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, 30(1): 238-254

Supplementary Reading
Porter, B.W. 2008 Heritage tourism: Conflicting identities in the modern world. In B. Graham and P. Howard (eds) Heritage and Identity, Aldershot: Ashgate
Wang, N. 1999. Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2): 349-370
Winter, T. 2010. Heritage Tourism: the dawn of a new era? In S. Labadi and C. Long (eds) Heritage and Globalisation. London: Routedge.

Heritage in the digital age
Required reading:
Giaccardi, E. 2012. Reframing Heritage in a participatory culture. In E. Giaccardi (ed.) Heritage and Social Media. London: Routledge. Pages, 1-6.
Gregory, J. 2015 Connecting with the past through social media: the ?Beautiful buildings and cool places Perth has lost Facebook group. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21 (1):22-45.

Supplementary Reading
Simon, R. I. 2012 Remembering together: social media and the formation of the historical present. In E. Giaccardi (ed.) Heritage and Social Media. London: Routledge. 89-106.
Smith, L. and E. Waterton, 2009. Communities, Heritage, Communities and Archaeology. London: Duckworth (chapter 6 on digital heritage).
Waterton, E. 2010. The Advent of new technologies. Museum Management and Curatorship, 25(1): 5-11.
Pietrobruno, S. 2009. Cultural research and intangible heritage. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 1:227-47.

History Wars and the museum
Required reading:
Appleton, J. 2007. Museums for ?The People?? In S. Watson (ed) Museums and their Communities, London: Routledge.
Casey, D. 2001. Museum as agents for social and political change. Curator, 44 (3): 230-6.
Kohn, R.H. 1995. History and the Culture Wars: The case of the Smithsonian Institution?s Enola Gay exhibition. The Journal of American History, 82(3):1036-1063.

Supplementary Reading
Falk, J.H. and Dierking, L.D. 2013. The Museum Experience. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Lowenthal, D. 2009. Patrons, populists, apologists: crises in museum stewardship. L. Gibson and J. Pendleberry (eds) Valuing Historic Environments. Ashgate.
Sandell, R. 2007 [2002]. Museums and the Combating of Social Inequality: Roles, Responsibilities, Resistance. In S. Watson (ed) Museums and their Communities. London: Routledge.
Walsh, K. 1992. The Representation of the Past: Museums and Heritage in the Post-Modern World. London: Routledge. (Chapter 1: The Idea of Modernity).
Witcomb, A. 2003. Re-Imagining the Museum: Beyond the Mausoleum. London: Routledge. (Chapter 1: Unmasking a Different Museum: Museums and Cultural Criticism).

Memory and emotion
Required reading:
Magelssen, S. 2012. ?You No Longer Need to Imagine?: Bus Touring through South central Los Angeles Gangland. In L. Smith, W. Waterton and S. Watson (eds) The Cultural Moment in Tourism, London: Routledge.
Tunbridge, J.E. and G.J. Ashworth. [1996] 2007. Dissonance and the uses of heritage. In Smith, L. (ed) Cultural Heritage: Critical concepts in media and cultural studies, Volume 2 pp. 206-248Routledge.

Supplementary Reading
Byrne, D. 2009 ?A critique of unfeeling heritage?, in L. Smith and N. Akagawa (eds) Intangible Heritage, London: Routledge.
Graham, B., Ashworth, G. and Tunbridge, J. 2000. A Geography of Heritage: Power, Culture and Economy. London: Arnold Publishers
Sather-Wagstaff, J. 2011. Heritage that Hurts: Tourists in the memoryscapes of September 11. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Wills, S. 2009. Between the hotel and the detention centre: possible trajectories of migrant pain and shame in Australia. In W. Logan and K. Reeves (eds) Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with ?Difficult Heritage?, London: Routledge.
Utaka, Y 2009. The Hiroshima ?Peace Memorial?: transforming legacy memories and landscapes. In W. Logan and K. Reeves (eds) Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with ?Difficult Heritage?, London: Routledge.

Heritage visitors
Required reading:
Bagnall, G. 2003. Performance and performativity at heritage sites, Museum and Society, 1(2): 87-103.

Supplementary Reading
Gable, E. and R. Handler 1996. After Authenticity at an American heritage Site. American Anthropologist 98(3): 568-78.
Macdonald, S. 2005. Accessing audiences: visiting visitor books and visitor books, Museum and Society, 3(3): 119-36.
Sather-Wagstaff, J. 2011. Heritage that Hurts: Tourists in the memoryscapes of September 11. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Smith, L. 2006 Uses of Heritage, London: Routledge.

Assessment Rubrics
The essays will be assessed on the following criteria:
? Critical engagement with the topic and depth of understanding
? The development of a central structuring argument that answers the essay question
? Range/comprehensiveness of material covered and readings used
? Critical approach to sources and the ability to synthesise source material
? Referencing
? Relevance of material
? Use of examples
? Originality
? Structure and presentation
Word limit: 2500

 

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