Heritage

Instructor: Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels

What traction does the past have in society today? This course explores globally how the past gains traction in society today and becomes remade in the present. That inquiry will be guided by the idea of heritage, as it mobilizes the past within a broad spectrum of social, political, economic, and environmental issues. We will examine western relationships to the past as intimately tied to property and the drive to plunder, collect, and catalogue. Increasingly, conceptions of heritage include landscapes, as well as intangibles such as music, dance, and folklore. This broad definition honors the diversity of present-day relations to the past, even as it strains heritage management models that are organized around definitions and regulations, and bear the weight of historical injustice. Close examination of heritage at work within global crisis and struggle prompts questions on who owns the past, and who owns up to it. What do we owe the past, and will we be good ancestors to the future?

GenEd: TBA

Offered in: Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Required/Optional: Required

Instructor: Samuel Holley-Kline

The politics of the past surround us. An online memorial to the struggle against the Dakota Pipeline, the call to commemorate Indigeneity instead of Columbus, monuments to the Confederacy torn down… How do diverse communities claim—or reject—particular places, practices, and ideas as their shared heritage, and why? In this course, we will explore these questions with reference to Indigenous communities in global context, with a particular focus on Mexico. Students will engage with theoretical approaches and contemporary case studies to analyze the politics and ethics surrounding the use of the past in diverse Indigenous presents. Visits to DC’s museums and archives will help students practice theorizing real-world materials. Students will leave the course with the analytical tools necessary to understand cultural heritage and advocate for Indigenous perspectives on the past. A typical day in this course will involve reading an article-length work and participating in student-led discussion.

GenEd: DSHU

Offered in: Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Required/Optional: Optional

Instructor: Aneta Georgievska-Shine

Despite the great variety of art museums in the world, these institutions share a common goal: to preserve and interpret cultural consciousness through objects or other material facets of human agency. While these collections often feature the cultural heritage(s) of their lands, in many cases, they also hold objects that have been taken away through illegal or morally questionable practices from their original context. Thus, they prompt discussions about who these holdings really belong to, how they should be displayed and interpreted, and whether they should return to their places of origin. This course explores a number of these issues by asking some fundamental questions: why do art museums matter? How have they evolved over time? What can they become in the future? Students will debate these questions to gain a finer understanding of the complex role of these institutions as custodians of cultural heritage.

GenEd: TBA

Offered in: Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Required/Optional: Optional

Instructor: Angela Stoltz / Tiara Thomas

In this unique semester-long learning experience, students will explore the history, culture, traditions, and contemporary issues faced by the Piscataway from the perspective of Piscataway course instructors. The experiential work of the course asks students to consider how the past matters, particularly when it is embodied in the land they live on, and their present obligations to it. On-campus and place-based learning, focused on Piscataway precolonial and colonial histories, and contemporary Piscataway issues create opportunities for students to reflect upon and interrogate their understanding of Maryland’s past, present, and future. Students will emerge from this course with a greater understanding of the Piscataway and an increased capacity to challenge colonial and postcolonial paradigms that marginalize the Piscataway as well as other Indigenous people in our region, nation, and across the globe

GenEd: TBA

Offered in: Fall 2023, Fall 2024

Required/Optional: Optional