Documenting and interpreting cultural heritage

This course is designed to put public history readings and practices in conversation with cultural heritage discourses. They too rarely speak to each other in the United States. Students taking this class (hopefully) leave with a better idea of the global conversation around heritage preservation and interpretation, as well as new skill sets (particularly around cultural landscapes and the built environment–my own specialty.) In the first iteration of this class, students did research and compiled a report on a plantation house now being used as office space by Auburn University. It required them to dig in lots of archives, to come up with a cohesive narrative for public consumption, and to think capaciously about how they might interpret history outside of a conventional historical institution. My students in the Museum Studies Practicum (Fall 2019) are building on this work with an exhibit.

Syllabus
Crowdsourced glossary of terms

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