Geography

Whose Histories Matter? Doing Decolonial Heritage and National Identities

Module code: 007GR
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Fieldwork, Workshop
Assessment modes: Essay, Coursework

This module aims to develop in students a set of tools to critically evaluate geographies of landscape, heritage and identities and to develop a postcolonial and decolonial perspective on issues of national identity, national heritage, memory and issues of place identity. The focus here is to examine the ways in which memory, spaces and identities intersect to form narratives of national, regional and community identities. The course addresses case-study sites that include spaces of heritage such as World Heritage Sites, National Parks, Cities and spaces of the Museum. Through these case-studies there is a focus on issues of who controls authorised or formal accounts of places, histories and national identities and thus who controls accounts of belonging, inclusion and exclusion. Core to the module is the critique of formalised heritage narratives and the exploration of counter-discourses such as postcolonial, decolonial contestations and counter memories and histories from below. Cultural geographies of landscape, national identity and the moral geographies of heritage are addressed through the role of museums, national parks, visual culture, art history, landscape aesthetics and the affective and emotional senses in preserving memories and intangible heritage narratives. The module engages with memory, space and place identities at different geographical scales including ‘bodies’ and ‘place’ at international, transnational, post-national communities.

Module learning outcomes

  • Recognise and understand the complexity of published research in the fields of memory, heritage and identity.
  • Demonstrate and apply skills in independent learning and reading to understand the critical and varied approaches to memory, heritage and identities.
  • Critically analyse theories of memory, identity and heritage issues through sites and spaces that record memory in a national, local and individual scales and modes,
  • Identify, explore, and discuss understandings of postcolonial critique of spaces of heritage through critical approaches to museums, landscapes and identity.
  • Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and summarise the key concepts embedded in the literatures on heritage, memory, and identity across the social sciences and humanities.