Module: HIS6111-20  Conflict and Community: The Politics of Heritage

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Dr Alison Hems

Module Tutor Contact Details: A.Hems@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module confronts some of the most intractable challenges facing the contemporary world: who we think we are, our sense of identity, the tension between the act of remembering and that of forgetting.

Cultural heritage is a contentious, complex subject. At different times and in different places, people have fought for their heritage to be recognised; or have destroyed the cultural heritage of others, because it did not conform to their particular view of the world: we watch this happening now, in the present.

Cultural heritage is a matter for international agreements and policies, but also of small, local initiatives and personal action. It unites and separates, inspires joy and compassion, and instills anger and resentment. It is a billion pound international industry, which threatens to destroy the very places that others struggle to protect. It is bound up with human creativity and human rights, and with acts of inhumanity that we variously seek to acknowledge and to hide.

History and cultural heritage underpin contemporary politics in the UK and internationally: they shape the world in which we live on the local, national, and global stage.

This module is an opportunity for us to explore some of these major themes – to ask big questions, and to debate our ideas about the value and meaning of the past in the present.

2.Outline syllabus:

The content of this module changes from year to year as we seek to respond to world events as they happen. We will build on the following key concepts and themes:

• Heritage, politics and power: why is heritage so politically charged? How have ideas about heritage changed over time, and in different parts of the world? What do we mean when we talk of ‘world heritage’?

• The uses of history: celebration, commemoration, narrative; sites of memory and remembrance

• The act of forgetting: deliberate and unthinking amnesia

• The destruction of heritage: physical and symbolic acts of war; and heritage as a force for reconciliation

• Heritage and the nation

• Heritage and communities, place-making and cohesion

• Contested collections: the ownership of museum collections, repatriation and restitution, whose history, whose past?

Throughout, you will be expected to consider contemporary events in the context of past history and academic writing about the concepts of heritage, public history, identity, and memory: read the newspapers on a regular basis, look out for television and radio programmes which explore these themes, and approach contemporary journalism and popular history critically.

3.Teaching and learning activities:

We will use seminars and workshops as the basis for this seminar. Participants will be asked to research and present on specific topics, and also to reflect on the ‘heritage’ aspects of current events, using their knowledge of history and of the use or mis-use of the past to critically assess contemporary journalism, film or television.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description:  Heritage Debate Analysis (2000 words)

• % Weighting: 40

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description:  Research Project (3000 words)

• % Weighting: 60