MA Classics and Ancient History / Course details

The aim of the course is to develop students’ understanding of the history, theory, ethics and politics of heritage and museums practice in contexts of conflict and difficult heritage, drawing on material from across a wide spectrum of modern and ancient case studies that speak to relevant, and often controversial, contemporary issues. As appropriate, these will be placed in the wider context of responses to natural and man-made disasters. Students will explore issues of theory and practice in a range of institutional settings, in the UK and internationally, including difficult and contested narratives, conservation and conflict zones, contemporary collecting and memory, memorials, civil rights and creative resistance, war and post-war heritage engagement, identity in conflict (soldiers, civilians, victims - ancient and modern), human remains, dark tourism and museums of civil wars, and dealing with trauma and conflict in a museological context.  

Each week focuses on a key area of practice and theory, and includes student-led activities, fieldwork and professional presentations. The aim is to stimulate critical reflection, as well as enable students to acquire nuanced and contextualized knowledge and understanding of some of the key intellectual, ethical, professional and political questions posed by, and of, heritage and museums in the context of conflict. 

 The aims of the unit are to:

1. Equip students with thorough knowledge and understanding of the social, spatial, ethical, political and financial and historical contexts of heritage, museums and conflict situations

2. Investigate the interrelations between curating, designing, making, documenting, expressing and communicating conflict

3. Map the development of the concept and practice of heritage and museums practice in conflict internationally, nationally, regionally and locally.

4. Introduce and apply key concepts in heritage theory to the critical analysis of conflict at the national, institutional or community level.

5. Prepare students for work-based practice through the interaction with heritage professionals and the opportunity to debate critical issues in policy and practice.

6. Develop students' skills in preparing and chairing meetings, conducting debate and facilitating discussion.

7. Develop students' research and written communication skills and styles.

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the field of heritage, museums and conflict and its social, spatial, ethical, political and financial contexts
• Analyse the historical and contemporary development of heritage, museums and conflict
• Identify and evaluate diverse approaches to the theoretical and critical analysis of difficult heritage and narratives of conflict
• Understand the interrelations between curating, designing, making, documenting, expressing and communicating in the context of conflict and post-conflict reconciliation

• Demonstrate a capacity to apply theoretical and critical concepts to the understanding and analysis of heritage and museums practice in conflict situations
• Apply disciplinary knowledge and understanding to an analysis of institutional policies/practices.
• Conduct independent research in order to produce a sustained, analytical enquiry into an aspect of heritage, museums and conflict.
• Design, research and present empirical research, determining and implementing a reflexive and appropriate methodology
• Apply skills and ideas learned in one institutional context to another, while remaining aware of the complexity of the issues
• Lead and participate in informed debate about key issues affecting policy and practice today.

• Identify, describe and document heritage and museums practice in conflict contexts
• Apply research methods to understand curators, educators, makers, uses and audiences of heritage and museums in conflict
• Collaborate effectively with fellow students.
• Prepare and deliver a short oral presentation, and respond to questions and discussions.
• Conduct effective fieldwork as part of an institutional analysis.

• Plan and deliver presentations, chair discussions, provide feedback
• Communicate information and ideas effectively in a professional, as well as an academic, environment.
• Retrieve, select and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources, including museums, archives, libraries and the Web.
• Work effectively within a team

Balshaw, M. 2024. Gathering of Strangers. Why Museums Matter. London, Tate.  

Bennett, T. 1995. The Birth of the Museum. London, Routledge.  

Benton, T. 2010. Understanding Heritage and Memory. Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Biers, T. and Stringer Clary, K. 2024. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage and Death. London, Routledge.  

Bozoğlu, G., Campbell, G., Smith, L. and Whitehead, C. (eds) 2024. Routledge Handbook of Politics and Heritage. London, Routledge.

Chipangura Njabulo and Mataga Jesmael. 2021. Museums as Agents for Social Change: Decolonisation at Mutare Museum.  London: Routledge

Cuno, J. B. 2008. Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over our Ancient Heritage. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Defreeze, M. 2009. Kosovo: Cultural Heritage in Conflict. Journal of Conflict Archaeology vol. 5, issue 1: 257-269.  

Duffy, T. 2001. “Museums of ‘Human Suffering’ and the Struggle for Human Rights” reprinted in Bettina Messias Carbonell (ed) (2004) Museum Studies. An Anthology of Contexts. Oxford, Blackwell:  117-123

Dunkley, M., Mol, L. and Tulliach, A. (eds.) 2024. Heritage at War. Plan and Prepare. Stroud, White Horse Press.  

Harrison, R. 2012. Heritage: Critical Approaches. London, Routledge.

Harrison, R. 2008. Understanding the Politics of Heritage. Manchester, Manchester University Press

Hicks, D. 2024. The Brutish Museums. The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution. London, Pluto Press.  

Kuper, A. 2024. The Museum of Other People. From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions. London, Profile Books.

Layton, R., Stone, P.G. and J. Thomas (eds) 2001. Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property. London: Routledge.

Lohman, J. and Goodnow, K. 2006. Human Remains and Museum Practice. London, Museum of London/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

Macdonald, S. 2008. Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond. Routledge

Mandelartz, P. and Johnston, T. 2016. Thanatourism: Case Studies in Travel to the Dark Side. Oxford, Goodfellow Publishers.

Merryman, J.H., 2009. Thinking About the Elgin Marbles: Critical Essays on Cultural Property, Art and Law. Kluwer Law International.

Meskell, L.M. (ed.) 1999. Archaeology Under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. London: Routledge.

Meskell, L. 2018. A future in ruins: UNESCO, world heritage, and the dream of peace. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sayer, D. 2010. Ethics and Burial Archaeology. London, Bloomsbury Press.  

Smith, L. 2006. Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge.

Smith, L 2020, Emotional Heritage: Visitor Engagement at Museums and Heritage Sites. London, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315713274

Sørensen, M.L.S. and Viejo-Rose, D. (eds) 2015. War and Cultural Heritage; Biographies of Place. Cambridge, University of Cambridge Press.  

Stone, P.G. 2012. Human Rights and Cultural Property Protection in Times of Conflict. International Journal of Heritage Studies 18(3): 271–284.

Stone, P. 2013. Dark Tourism Scholarship: A Critical Review, International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research Vol.7, No. 3, 2013.

Stone, P.R., Hartmann, R., Seaton, A.V., Sharpley, R., White, L. (eds) 2018. The Palgrave handbook of dark tourism studies. London, Palgrave Macmillan. 

• 21 hours of contact time (blended 3 lecture and seminar for 7 weeks); plus 3 hours of coursework support. Individual supervision and consultation available through scheduled weekly office hours.
• 6 hours of field trips (subject to government rules)
• 123 hours of independent study