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

• Awareness of varying contributions made by heritage to different forms of identity will be gained through directed reading, lectures and seminar discussions (each of which will focus on the role of the various aspects of heritage in creating different forms of identities). The ability to discuss the merits of various approaches will be fostered by reading, analysis of interpretations in lectures and discussion and judgements in seminar discussions.

• Knowledge of the role of heritage in the construction of individual and group identities will be gained through directed reading, through lectures, through seminars and a field trip (Outcome 1)

• The ability to analyse documentary evidence or a specific heritage site and discuss its relevance to wider issues within heritage studies will be gained through directed reading, through lectures (which will constantly explore the link between heritage and broader debates within history, archaeology and current political issues) and through seminar discussions (seminars concentrate on specific individual or group identities, nation states and heritage sites) and a field trip.

• The ability to answer degree essay questions will be promoted by coursework feedback. (Outcome 4).

• The ability to employ primary evidence will be fostered through a special teaching session on this, feedback in coursework essays, and the list of sources of primary evidence in the bibliography. (Outcome 5)

• The ability to form and present arguments about aspects of the role of heritage in the construction of identities, and to back them with evidence, will be promoted by experiencing argument in reading and lectures, by student practice in seminars, and by discussion of issues arising from the field trip.