HIST8005 Heritage and Community History

2012

4.5

2 x 2-hour seminars per semester
1 x 3-hour workshop per semester
6 x 2-hour field trips per semester

HIST8002 has been successfully completed

Graduate Certificate in Applied History and Heritage Studies; Graduate Diploma in Applied History and Heritage Studies; Graduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage Management; Graduate Diploma in Archaeology; Master of Cultural Heritage Management; Master of Archaeology

This topic introduces students to the nature and practice of community history and heritage. It does so by considering a variety of ways in which community history is practised, with a particular emphasis on community history in South Australia. Students will be introduced to a range of sources (archival and other) and methodologies currently used by local and community historians. They will also be introduced to the concept of heritage and its many manifestations, with a particular emphasis on the built environment and cultural heritage. The key theoretical issues which frame current practices in community history and heritage will be discussed in detail.

This topic aims to:

• Introduce students to the nature and practice of community history and heritage in various physical settings and the various theoretical, social, political, ethical and other considerations that construct and impact on them;
• Develop sudents' capacity to find and use a range of appropriate methodologies and resources for community history and heritage;
• Develop students' abilities to scrutinize and evaluate historical evidence and to use it in constructing complex historical explanations;
• Enhance students' knowledge of, affinity with and critical reading of their own community history and heritage environment;
• Enhance students' capacity for independent research in various methodologies of locality history;
• Give students an opportunity to rehearse historical communication skills, professional, scholarly and informal, verbally and in writing;
• Develop students' engagement with community history and heritage practitioners and the ways (and places) in which they work;
• Encourage students as independent learners who can progressively identify and develop their own learning styles

Students successfully completing the topic will be able to:

• Identify and discuss significant themes in community history and heritage, recognise them in specific case studies (both in contemporary South Australia and in non-Australian examples) and demonstrate familiarity with relevant scholarly perspectives, especially debates on the methodologies, political constructions, ethics and purposes of heritage and community history and other forms of locality history;
• Analyse the probable causes and consequences of various changes in South Australian history and the ways in which these impact on community history and heritage, with specialist knowledge of at least one site and/or locality;
• Appropriately and effectively search major South Australian repositories for historical evidence (and show some familiarity with non-South Australian repositories);
• Demonstrate familiarity with local community history and heritage operating networks and demonstrate appropriate professional communication skills with both research subjects and professionals in the field;
• Participate in a community history or heritage workplace under the direction of a local supervisor and analyse some aspect of the experience in terms of this topic or analyse problems in their own current or past community history or heritage or educational (or other suitable) workplace in terms of this topic;
• Comprehend, critically analyse and use their own primary research in constructing a reasoned and coherent argument and communicate their ideas and lines of reasoning, verbally and in writing;
• Demonstrate an enhanced capacity for independent historical questioning, analysis and research;
• Identify their own learning goals, plan and direct (redirect) their own activities and evaluate and assess their own progress