Cultural History, Memory and Identity MA (PGCert PGDip)

Cultural Memory pathway

The Cultural Memory pathway explores distinctive approaches to questions of history making, historical consciousness and the cultural significance of the past, as developed in the dynamic and fast-evolving field of memory studies. It focuses on the social, cultural and political processes that produce a sense of the past for particular societies and groups, and on the relationship between these collective, public dimensions of remembering and forgetting and the domain of personal memory. Central themes and issues include:

• the representation of the past, and of the past-present relationship, in diverse cultural practices and forms (oral, textual, visual, digital and material)
• the role of cultural memories in the formation of beliefs, ideologies and identities
• conflict over the significance of the past
• contested sites of memory and memorialisation
• the politics and ethics of remembering and forgetting
• Holocaust memory

The two-semester pathway introduces cultural memory theories and practices by engaging a wide range of sites, contexts, forms and media. Students build a strong repertoire of analytical skills for understanding the importance of cultural memory today. You will study concepts of individual, collective, transgenerational and multidirectional memory, the contested nature of shared memory, and how the ‘memory boom’ of recent decades is big business, a new field of academic inquiry and central to struggles for social justice. On this foundation, the pathway continues by developing a detailed investigation of Holocaust Memory. Students consider survivor testimony, fiction, film, public histories, the memory and memorialisation of the Holocaust in Germany, the transition of the Holocaust from ‘lived memory’ into history and the globalisation and commodification of the Holocaust.

Modules

• Cultural Memory: Concepts, Theories and Methods
• Holocaust Memory
• Research Methods
• Research Project

Two option modules from a range including:

• Heritage in a Global Context
• Cultural Theory
• Aesthetics
• Forms of Warfare and Violent Conflict
• Causes of War: Theories and Framings
• Conflict, Security and Human Rights
• Globalisation and Global Politics
• Philosophy Foundations and Critical Theory
• Traditions of Critical Theory

Making Histories: Public History and Heritage pathway

The Making Histories pathway explores the relationship between public history, history-making, and cultural heritage in the twenty-first century. It introduces key concepts, debates and theories to critically engage with questions of how the past is understood in relation to the built environment, cultural and intangible heritage, heritage policy and community-driven heritage projects. In evaluating differing uses of the past to create cultural heritage in the present, the pathway critically explores the dynamic ways in which heritage in its broadest sense is experienced, negotiated and renegotiated in contemporary global contexts. Central themes and issues include:

• the social, political and cultural processes through which meanings of heritage are created, recreated and contested by people, groups and communities
• heritage policy, ‘experience’, inclusivity and public impact.
• cultural heritage, place, belonging and identity
• postcolonial, transnational and diasporic heritage
• the role of heritage in post-conflict contexts
• affect, embodied memory and cultural practice

The two-semester pathway introduces key frameworks for the critical study of heritage by engaging a wide range of sites, contexts, forms and media. Students will develop critical and  analytical skills for understanding contested meanings of heritage in the present in terms of the relations between institutional policy and local, regional and national communities. On this foundation, the pathway continues by developing a detailed investigation of the complex roles the colonial and imperial past plays in recreating and/or reclaiming cultural heritage in post-conflict, postcolonial and transnational contexts. Case studies normally include Africa, India and Ireland.

Modules

• Making Histories, Creating Heritage
• Postcolonial Heritage and Transnational Histories
• Research Methods
• Research Project

Two option modules from a wide range including:

• Cultural Theory
• Aesthetics
• Forms of Warfare and Violent Conflict
• Causes of War: Theories and Framings
• Conflict, Security and Human Rights
• Globalisation and Global Politics
• Philosophy Foundations and Critical Theory
• Traditions of Critical Theory

'Race', Nation and Ethnicity pathway

Questions of ‘race’, nation and ethnicity (as these intersect with other factors such as class, gender, sexuality and locality) such as immigration, Islamophobia, #blacklivesmatter, and nationalism are key issues of our time. This pathway focuses on the historical processes that produce identities and differences and on the different ways in which they are represented. It investigates how collective experiences, myths and memories are drawn upon in narratives that construct the histories, identities and destinies of racial, national and ethnic groups, which in turn underpin those groups’ ideological and political claims in the present. Central themes and issues include:

• the historical formation and contested cultural representation of Britishness in relation to ‘race’, nation and ethnicity with a particular emphasis on histories of migration, diaspora and empire
• images and memories pertaining to places of origin, of belonging, of journeying and settlement
• legacies of empire and reparative histories
• commemorative practice and resistance
• the ethics and politics of the archive
• radical histories of anticolonialism and internationalism

The two-semester pathway will equip you with critical and theoretical tools to unpack and analyse the significance of migration and empire for cultural constructions of Britishness, and develops methods for the critical investigation of history-making practices in terms of ideology, cultural representation and identity-formation across various sites and forms – visual and linguistic. On this foundation, the pathway moves on to consider the current call for reparative justice within the specific contexts of ‘race’, identity, transatlantic slavery and empire by drawing on key debates concerning the relationship of the past to the present.

You will also examine multicultural and internationalist memories and histories of resistance to empire and their erasures in traditional histories of colonialism. How have the subjects of empire resisted their inscription within colonial renderings of ‘them’ and ‘us’? How does, or how can, the way in which we understand the imperialist past help to inform and understand contemporary anti-racist struggles?

Modules

• Constructing and Contesting Britishness: Histories, Cultures and Identities
• ‘Race’ and Reparative Histories
• Research Methods
• Research Project

Two option modules from a wide range including:

• Heritage in a Global Context
• Cultural Theory
• Aesthetics
• Forms of Warfare and Violent Conflict
• Causes of War: Theories and Framings
• Conflict, Security and Human Rights
• Globalisation and Global Politics
• Philosophy Foundations and Critical Theory
• Traditions of Critical Theory

Meet the team

Dr Anita Rupprecht, course leader

Dr Anita Rupprecht’s research focuses on the histories and legacies of British transatlantic slavery, resistance and abolition, postcolonial literature and theory, and the politics of cultural memory and reparative justice. Read Anita's full profile.

Other teaching staff include:

Dr Cathy Bergin’s  research focuses on the politics of ‘race’ and colonialism in African American writing, focusing on cultural formations and Communist politics in the 20^th Century. Read Cathy's full profile.

Dr Nicola Clewer’s research focuses on the relation between aesthetics and politics in relation to memorialisation, neoliberalism and the rise of the far-right. Read Nicola's full profile.

Dr Deborah Madden is a cultural and intellectual historian, specialising in Protestant dissenting religion and medical missionaries in the British Empire. Read Deborah's full profile.

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The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2022–23.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

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