Heritage (MRes)

Course Overview

The Heritage MRes offers students an opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of heritage from the perspective of different disciplines, including archaeology and history.

It enables students to gain critical acumen in exploring the meanings of heritage as a concept and how such concepts are applied in the UK and on a worldwide basis, thus providing valuable insights and an understanding of a sector that is gaining increased significance in today’s world.

Heritage, as understood here, is a concern for the past, imagined and constructed in (and for) the present, but set within a wider appreciation for the future. The past as Heritage might include the tangible surroundings of landscape, art, building and written traces, alongside the more intangible aspects of heritage such as a sense of place, cultural space and resonance, or a locus of ritual, festivals and social memory.

The Mres considers how Heritage is a contested field: set within a framework of communal/ social needs and obligations, and concerned with issues of interpretation and representation. Heritage is also an economic resource and product, an ‘industry’ interwoven into the economic life of community and state, shaped by decisions of conservation and preservation, and directed through a network of overlapping political, legal and institutional ambitions and priorities.

Assessment

The programme draws upon a wide range of assessment techniques, which aim to produce historians with a multifaceted set of skills and knowledge. Modules concentrate in particular on essay-writing, but also include the following assessments: book reviews; reflective journals; posters and source commentaries.

Career Opportunities

The programme provides a broad foundation for postgraduate work, by laying particular stress on the methodologies and research tools needed for independent advanced study, thus acting as training for students who intend to undertake an MPhil or PhD.

Applicants are expected to have a good first degree (a first or upper second), although every application is considered in its own merit, so places may be offered on the basis of professional qualification and relevant experiences. The traditional requirement for entry onto a Level 7 programme is a 2.1 or 1st class undergraduate degree. In addition, the School encourages students with an equivalent and appropriate professional qualification or significant and relevant professional experience to apply.