Exciting changes to our Heritage and Interpretation Masters for October

Several staff members here are spending their summer days revamping and enhancing our Heritage and Interpretation Masters programme. There has been huge enthusiasm and support within the School for the way that the course (formerly known as ‘Interpretation, Representation and Heritage’) is changing. Everyone wants to be a part of it! It has been particularly heartening to have a positive response from our prospective students for the October 2013 intake, who will be the first group to go through with this enhanced version of the curriculum, and its new name.

So what is changing? Well, our new version of the course still focuses on the processes and politics of ‘interpretation’ in heritage contexts, but will now also place a greater emphasis on that heritage context itself, particularly its production and its management. The intention is to help learners develop professional skills and critical understandings relevant to heritage work worldwide.  Part of this is the addition of a module called ‘Supporting Heritage’ which is concerned with how heritage is managed and organised, as well as looking at the way new forms of heritage can be supported.

Across the course, we are designing new study activities and pulling in new case studies in order to inspire critical and creative thinking in heritage. Our Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG), for example, are bringing their most compelling insights and examples of heritage in practice to the course, some of which push at the boundaries of existing ideas about heritage.  Academics in the School are contributing an abundance of in-depth knowledge about the current state of heritage, including real world ‘problems’ in heritage interpretation, as well as insight into the strategic, organisational and governance issues around heritage. What is really exciting, of course, is that research-active academics are directly shaping the programme. After each of our meetings, there is a real buzz around the building. Do check out the programme structure on our website if you are interested and feel free to drop us any questions you have. We love to chat!