Unit name | The Cultural heritage of Historic Towns and Cities in Europe and Beyond |
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Unit code | MODL30027 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Marianne Ailes |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Modern Languages |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit will use case studies of important towns and cities in countries where one of the main languages is taught in the School. The unit aims to examine the place of cultural heritage in developing a sense of local and national identity and in the heritage industry. The teaching will link the history of the case studies to aspects of the surviving physical environment and less tangible aspects of cultural heritage. It will address ethical questions relating to challenging aspects of cultural heritage (for example where major elements of the history involve oppression or violence), as well as issues of engagement with local heritage and identity. The unit will aim to give the students a deep understanding of the concept of cultural heritage and its role in local communities. It will encourage students to develop a different writing style, appropriate for communicating academic knowledge to the wider community, while demonstrating a high level of knowledge of the history behind the heritage. The unit will also aim to give the students opportunities to work in a team in a way similar to a professional environment. The students will work in editorial teams to create an online journal centred on the cultural heritage of a particular town; the best journal, as judged by someone from the publishing industry, will be published on the School’s web-site.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to demonstrate:
1 x lecture per week
1 x seminar per week
1 visit to a local heritage site to consider aspects of curation and presentation to the public
Assessment 1 (25%): each student will prepare an audio recording (podcast style) of 15 minutes discussing an issue raised by challenging aspects of cultural heritage and how this is dealt with in a town or city of their choice testing ILOs 1,2, and 4).
Assessment 2 (75%) The students will work in editorial boards of 4-6 students to produce an online journal focusing on one city and aimed at the educated public; each student will contribute one article (3,000 words) to the journal. The surrounding material (editorial, contents page, local events page) will be produced as a group. Students can base their journal round one of the places
Alpin, G., Heritage: Identification, Conservation and management (Oxford: OUP, 2002), especially pp. 255-66 on France
Darvill T.C. 1999 ‘The past into the present’ in The Archaeology of Britain, eds. Hunter, J & I. Ralston, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 410-432
Fentress, James and Chris Wickham, Social Memory (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992)
Nora, Pierre, Les Lieux de mémoire, 3 vols (Paris : Gallimard, 1984-92) ; English translation Realms of Memory : Rethinking the French Past