New module equips students with the tools to Reinterpret the Country House
In September we were delighted to launch a new MA module at Bangor University called ‘Reinterpreting the Country House: Archives, Interpretation and the Histories of Wales’.
An optional module for students on our Global Heritage, History and Welsh History MA programmes, the module was co-designed by Dr Lowri Ann Rees and Dr Shaun Evans to provide students with an opportunity to learn from and contribute towards the work of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates.
With dedicated sessions on themes such as landscape, material culture, libraries, women’s history, colonial connections and social history, the course encourages students to interrogate the latest research in gentry culture, landed estates and the country house, and best-practice in public engagement and heritage interpretation.
‘‘What attracted me to this module was the breadth of learning and subjects that are covered within the history of the Welsh country house’’ explained Rose Horton-Smith, one of the students taking the module. ‘‘Learning about the wider remit of the estate, the country house and those that lived and worked there is of real interest to me. How the country house fitted into the culture, society and landscape of Wales was the main reason for taking the module.’’
Most of the sessions take place within Bangor University Archives and Special Collections, one of the foremost repositories in Europe for the records of landed families and estates, with additional fieldtrips to nearby sites such as Penrhyn Castle. Archives and archival research are core parts of the module.
One of the module’s primary aims is to equip students with the tools to create high-quality heritage interpretation based on original research of archives, collections and landscapes.
For the assessment, students are asked to design and deliver an ‘interpretation intervention’, based on primary research and heritage best-practice. Through these interventions we envisage the module contributing towards an enriched understanding of the complex histories attached to Welsh country houses and estate communities.
To find out more about the module and MA opportunities at Bangor University please contact module convenor Dr Shaun Evans (shaun.evans@bangor.ac.uk).
