Overview

Individual, group, local, regional, national and global identities; museums; political and cultural role of archaeology and history, the heritage in minority groups, the heritage of elites, oral culture, heritage and the nation state, the creation of heritage-based identities in past societies.

Assessment Strategy

Threshold students (D- and D) will have done only a minimum of reading, and their work will often be based partly on lecture notes and/or basic textbooks. They will demonstrate in their written assessments some knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partially-successful attempts to frame an argument which engages with historical controversies and/or heritage debates, but they will fail to discuss some large and vital aspects of a topic; and/or deploy only some relevant material but partly fail to combine it into a coherent whole; and/or deploy some evidence to support individual points but often fail to do so and/or show difficulty weighing evidence (thereby relying on unsuitable or irrelevant evidence when making a point). Alternatively, or additionally, the presentation of the work might also be poor, with bad grammar and/or punctuation, careless typos and spelling errors, and a lack of effective and correct referencing.

Students in this band (C- to C+) will demonstrate a satisfactory range of achievement or depth of knowledge of most parts of the module, and will make successful, if occasionally inconsistent, attempts to develop those skills appropriate to the study of Heritage at undergraduate level. In the case of the written assessments, the answers will attempt to focus on the question, although might drift into narrative, and will show some evidence of solid reading and research. The argument might lose direction and might not be adequately clear at the bottom of this category. Written work will be presented reasonably well with only limited errors in grammar, punctuation, and referencing, and not to the extent that they obscure meaning.

Good students (B- to B+) will demonstrate a solid level of achievement and depth of knowledge in all the criteria in the C- to C+ range and will in addition exhibit constructive engagement with different types of historical writing, scholarly debates and heritage interpretation. Ideas will be communicated effectively, and written work will include a good range of sources/reading and demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues and of the existing interpretations expressed in a well-structured, relevant, and focused argument. Students at the top end of this band will engage with and critique the ideas that they come across and synthesise the various interpretations they find to reach their own considered conclusions. Written work will be correctly presented with references and bibliography where appropriate.

Excellent students (A- and above) will show strong achievement across all the criteria combined with particularly impressive depths of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis. In written work, they will support their arguments with a wealth of relevant detail/examples. They will also demonstrate an acute awareness of the relevant historiography and heritage scholarship and give an account of why the conclusions reached are important within a particular debate. They may show a particularly subtle approach to possible objections, nuancing their argument in the light of counter-examples, or producing an interesting synthesis of various contrasting positions. Overall, the standards of content, argument, and analysis expected will be consistently superior to top upper-second work. Standards of presentation will also be high.

Learning Outcomes

• An ability to analyse documentary evidence or a particular heritage site and discuss its relevance to wider issues within heritage studies.

• An ability to present clear, cogent and evidence-based arguments about aspects of the role of heritage in the construction of identity in two essays, and support these with evidence.

• Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the role of heritage in creating various froms of individual and group identity.

• Show a detailed awareness of the varying contributions made by heritage to different forms of identity and an ability to compare and contrast the role of heritage in the creation of of different forms of identity