There are no pre-requisites for this module to be added

This module will introduce you to the interdisciplinary field of Public Humanities focusing on the intersection between memory studies, literary and cultural conceptions of heritage, and working with community groups. You will gain an insight into some of the considerations, trends and employability skills in fields such as cultural heritage, community arts and education.This module will introduce you to how memory, nostalgia, and trauma are interpreted and expressed through the cultural practices of institutions, communities, and individuals. You will be asked to reflect on methods and processes of remembering and examining how literary and cultural narratives around tangible heritage like architecture, museum objects, textiles, and food, and intangible heritage like concepts of beauty and tourism are determined by shared and often competing socio-cultural ideologies. You will be asked to think through the ways in which literature and media influence the constitution of public memory---looking at processes of remembering as ideologically driven and politically invested acts. You will be invited to critically reflect on key concepts such as collective memory and its literary and cultural manifestations, think through individual and transgenerational memory, and link it to conceptions of tangible and intangible forms of heritage that you inhabit or experience around yourself. This module will provide an opportunity to understand and address the uses and impact of the past in the present in local and global contexts. This focus on personal memories and public histories in heritage and culture will be supported by a critical exploration of methodologies ranging from oral history, discourse analysis and the politics and ethics of public engagement. In addition to engagement with cultural heritage organisations and museum objects, you will critically analyse a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, including poetry, film, novels, and essays for their narrative representation and critiques of such themes and issues, and for the ways of thinking they might offer about how people relate to the past and engage with current expressions of communal, national, and personal histories.

Upon completion of this module you will be able to

LO1: Illustrate a well-informed understanding of different meanings or concepts of ‘memory’, ‘heritage’ and ‘community engagement’ and elucidate how they have been culturally and historically constructed.

LO2: Accurately assess and critically reflect on a range of topical and historical examples of the use of literary narrative in consolidating cultural heritage and making it cognitively and emotionally accessible to the public.

LO3: Engage with and critically assess a range of theoretical and critical responses to cultural heritage, memory and museum studies and ethics of community engagement.

LO4: Evaluate your learning during the module and demonstrate how that learning relates to the module’s set texts and assessments.

LO5: Demonstrate leadership and/or initiative in group-based activities while implementing experience of working with different interest groups and opinions.