Sheila Watson - A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage

Heritages revival as a respected academic subject has, in part, resulted from an increased awareness and understanding of indigenous rights and non-Western philosophies and practices, and a growing respect for the intangible. Heritage has, thus far, focused on management, tourism, and the traditionally heritage-minded disciplines, such as archaeology, geography, and social and cultural theory. Widening the scope of international heritage studies, A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage explores heritage through new areas of knowledge, including emotion and affect, the politics of dissent, migration, and intercultural and participatory dimensions of heritage.

Drawing on a range of disciplines and the best from established sources, the book includes writing not typically recognised as heritage, but which, nevertheless, makes a valuable contribution to the debate about what heritage is, what it can do, and how it works and for whom. Including heritage perspectives from beyond the professional sphere, the book serves as a reminder that heritage is not just an academic concern, but a deeply felt and keenly valued public and private practice. This blending of traditional topics and emerging trends, established theory, and concepts from other disciplines offers readers international views of the past and future of this growing field.

A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage offers a wider, more current, and more inclusive overview of issues and practices in heritage and its intersection with museums. As such, the book will be essential reading for postgraduate students of heritage and museum studies. It will also be of great interest to academics, practitioners, and anyone else who is interested in how we conceptualise and use the past.

Sheila Watson is an Associate Professor and Director of the MA/MSc in Heritage and Interpretation by Distance Learning in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK.

Amy Jane Barnes is a Research Associate in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, UK, a University Teacher at Loughborough University, UK, and an affiliate of Kings College London.

Katy Bunning is a Lecturer and Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK.

Leicester Readers in Museum Studies

Series Editor: Professor Simon J. Knell

Museum Management and Marketing

Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes

Museums in the Material World

Simon Knell

Museums and their Communities

Sheila Watson

Museums in a Digital Age

Ross Parry

Preventive Conservation in Museums

Chris Caple

Museum Objects: Experiencing the Properties of Things

Sandra H. Dudley

Museums and Archaeology

Robin Skeates

A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage

Edited by Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes and Katy Bunning

Edited by
Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes and Katy Bunning

First published 2019

by Routledge

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2019 selection and editorial matter, Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes and Katy Bunning; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes and Katy Bunning to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Watson, Sheila, editor. | Barnes, Amy (Amy Jane), editor. | Bunning, Katy, editor.

Title: A museum studies approach to heritage / edited by Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes, and Katy Bunning.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Leicester readers in museum studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018005467| ISBN 9781138950931 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138950924 (paperback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315668505 (Master) | ISBN 9781317361312 (Web) | ISBN 9781317361305 (epub) | ISBN 9781317361299 (mobi/kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: Cultural propertyProtection. | Museums.

Classification: LCC CC135 .M866 2018 | DDC 069dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018005467

ISBN: 978-1-138-95093-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-95092-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-66850-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

To all of my colleagues at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester S.W.

For Oscar and na A.J.B.

To all the staff at the School of Museum Studies for their support, encouragement and inspiration K.B.

Eva Ambos is a Research Fellow in the Asia and Europe in a Global Context Research Cluster at the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg. She is working on the Changing Minds and Trauma in Transcultural Perspective projects, and has also been involved in the Religion on Stage project.

Gregory John Ashworth (19412016) was a Professor of Heritage Management and Urban Tourism at the University of Groningen. He held this position from 1994 until his retirement in 2006.

Jeanette Atkinson is a Research Network Facilitator in the History Faculty at Oxford University, and an Associate Tutor in the School of Museum Studies at Leicester University. She holds a PhD in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester and has worked in regional and national museums in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Amy Jane Barnes is a Research Associate in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, UK, a University Teacher at Loughborough University, UK, and an affiliate of Kings College London. She has previously worked in a number of roles in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. Her monograph Museum Representations of Maoist China was published in 2014 (Routledge).

Paul Basu is a Professor of Anthropology at SOAS University of London. His regional specialism is West Africa, in particular Sierra Leone, where he researches landscape, memory and heritage. At present, he is writing up over ten years worth of research accrued during the Palimpsest Memoryscapes: Historical Consciousness in Sierra Leone project.

Joan Beaumont