American Civilization 1560
Comparative Cultural Heritage: Hong Kong and New England
Brown University
June 5 – Aug 5, 2011
Course Description
This 8-week summer course, developed jointly by faculty at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
and Brown University, begins with 4 weeks in Hong Kong exploring the ways that individuals and
institutions are working to preserve the city’s cultural heritage. Through a series of seminars and
site visits, students will engage with the complex political and economic relationships between
heritage management, urban renewal and ecotourism.
The second month will be spent in Providence, where students will examine the history and
philosophy of preservation in the United States from colonial times to the present day, addressing
topics such as historical archaeology, museum interpretation, and oral history. Students will have
the opportunity to engage with researchers, professionals, artists, and local communities in
discussing and negotiating complex scenarios from the Providence-Boston metropolitan area in
both classroom lectures and workshops and site visits and tours. Hands-on learning in the field
will also be a key element of the course, with students participating in an archaeological dig as
well as the preparation of an online museum exhibition.
Learning outcomes:
At the end of the course, students shall have been introduced to cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary,
and critical approaches to:
 The historic background and heritage between the two cities
 The significance of their heritage properties
 The economic, social and political contexts of heritage conservation in the two cities
Learning activities:
The course will meet two or three days per week, all day. Students will spend 4 weeks in Hong Kong, at
CUHK, and 4 weeks on the Brown University campus in Providence, RI.
At each site there will be approximately 45 contact hours of instruction, including lectures and group
discussions, trips to local institutions and field work. In Hong Kong, students will visit museums and fieldsites in urban and rural areas. In addition, they will spend a full week in Beijing, considering historic sites
and heritage preservation in China’s capital city. In Rhode Island, students will work at the Greene Farm
Archaeology Project; undertake instruction in conducting oral history, tour and learn about some of
Providence’s diverse neighborhoods, and explore such local resources as the Rhode Island School of Design
Museum, Old Sturbridge Village, and Plymouth Plantation. Students will also make two day trips to Boston
and New York City in order to view museums and heritage sites.
Course Requirements
Class Participation:
Students are expected to attend all sessions of the class, to do all assigned readings by their
assigned date, and to participate actively in discussion and debate. Students may be asked to
undertake small projects or presentations from class session to class session as well.
Writing Assignments and Digital Media:
Students will be asked, on a weekly basis, to write essays or create digital projects (ca. 5-7 pages
or equivalent) drawn from, and developing, each week’s general theme. Specific topics will be
developed over the course of the week, with the assignment to be posted to the class wiki by the
following Tuesday morning. All students will have access to these postings, and discussion of each
other’s work and thoughts (both in and out of class time) will be encouraged.
An additional writing assignment will be an ongoing blog (posted to the class wiki) providing
students with a forum in which to identify and ponder common thread, and distinct differences, in
the treatment of cultural heritage in Hong Kong and in Providence. Again, these blogs will be
accessible to the entire class, and will be a source for interaction and debate, in class and out.
Grading
Class Participation: 20%
Weekly Writing Assignments: 50%
Individual blogs: 30%
**NOTE: All readings will be found on Brown’s online course reserves system, OCRA. You can log
on using the username you have been assigned, and the class password is “webpass1”
Course Schedule - July 11-August 5, 2011
Sunday July 10
Students arrive and transfer to campus
Move in to Barber Hall (students to be met by residence assistants)
Sunday evening (time TBD) - Residence life orientation
Monday July 11
2-3pm
Campus Tour
(organized by Campus Life)
3-4pm
Academic orientation session/Q&A
JNBC Seminar Room
4-6pm
Welcome reception
JNBC Library or garden (weather
dependent)
Week 1 – Preservation
Kwame Anthony Appiah, “Whose Culture is it?” in the New York Review of Books, Vol. 53, No. 2, Feb.
9, 2006.
David Lowenthal, “Heritage Wars” Spiked-Culture (online article)
Steven Lubar, "Record, Preserve, Document, Shape: Talking About the Public Humanities," Paley Library,
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, November 2010 (YouTube video)
Briann Greenfield, “Marketing the Past: Historic Preservation in Providence, RI,” in Giving
Preservation a History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States ed. Max Page and
Randall Mason.
*ASSIGNMENT – Write a short commentary on your first impressions about the ways art and
heritage are being preserved in Providence versus what you studied and observed in Hong Kong
Tuesday July 12 – Introduction to Cultural Heritage Studies in New England
9-12
Introduction to Cultural Heritage Studies
Prof. Steven Lubar
12-1pm
Lunch
1-4pm
Walking tour of John Brown House and Benefit
Street Trade Mansions
JNBC Seminar Room
Meet on steps of JNBC
Dr Caroline Frank and/or Dr Morgan Grefe
Wednesday July 13 – Brown Library resources and special heritage collections
1:30-2pm
Introduction to the course reserves system and tour of
the library
Meet at the Rockefeller Library,
Hecker Room
2-3:30pm
Tour of the John Hay collections and special treasures
Meet in the Lobby of the Hay
Thursday July 14th - Urban Heritage in Providence
9-12
(8:30 meet)
Session on Providence arts and culture
12-1pm
Rhode Island Historical Society “Freedom”
walking tour of Providence Memorials
Meet on steps of Arcade,
Westminster St
2-4pm
Tour of City Hall and Archives with Paul
Campbell
Meet on ground floor, City
Hall
9-10am - Urban Heritage – Ian Russell
10-11am Arts and Culture in Providence –
Stephanie Fortunato
11-11:45am -Introduction to AS220 – Bert
Crenca
*8:30am* - meet on steps of
JNBC to walk to AS220
Saturday July 16th- Preserving Nineteenth Century New England - Trip to Old Sturbridge
Village
Meet at JNBC at 9am to board bus. Food can be purchased there or bring your own bag lunch. We
will return before dinnertime.
*Possible group evening excursion to view “Waterfire” in Providence (meet 7pm @JNBC to walk
together)
Week 2 – Excavation
Required Readings:
Mary C. Beaudry, 1995 Scratching the Surface: Seven Seasons at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury,
Massachusetts. Northeast Historical Archaeology 24:19-49.
James Deetz, 1996 [1977] In Small Things Forgotten: and archaeology of early American life. Anchor: New
York.
H. Arthur Bankoff and F. Winter. 2005 The Archaeology of Slavery at the Van Cortlandt Plantation in the
Bronx, New York. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 9(4): 291-318.
Shepherd, Nick. 2007 What does it mean 'To Give the Past Back to the People'? Archaeology and Ethics in
the Postcolony. In Y. Hamalakis and P. Duke, eds. Archaeology and Capitalism, From Ethics to Politics. Left
Coast Press; Walnut Creek, 99-114.
C. Holtorf 2002 ‘Notes on the Life History of a Pot Sherd’, Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 7, No. 1, 49-71.
*ASSIGNMENT – for this week, keep a notebook of all your observations, experiences and findings
at the Green Farm Archaeological site.
**NOTE – For the trips to Greene farm, bring a bag lunch, lots of water, sunscreen, sun hat and wear
close-toed shoes!
Tuesday July 19th
9-12
Introduction to Greene Farm Archaeological Project
Drs Krysta Ryzewski and Caroline Frank
Rhode Island Hall
12-1pm
Lunch
1-4pm
Travel to Greene Farm Project for introductory tour
and orientation
Meeting location TBD
7-9pm
Pizza and Film screening (“The African Burial
Ground: An American Discovery”)
Rhode Island Hall
Wednesday July 20th
All Day - Excursion/Dig at Greene Farm Archaeological Project
Drs Krysta Ryzewski and Caroline Frank
Meet 8am at JNBC
Return 4pm
Thursday July 21st
All Day - Excursion/Dig at Greene Farm Archaeological Project
Meet 8am at JNBC
Drs Krysta Ryzewski and Caroline Frank
Return 4pm
Friday July 22nd– Day Trip to Boston
Suggested reading in preparation for the trip:
Elliot Bostwick Davis, “Communicating through Design and Display: The New American Wing at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” in Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values,
edited by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Alvarez, University of Southern California, 2009, 182-186
Michael Holleran, “Boston’s Changeful Times”: Origins of Preservation and Planning in America. 1998
(Introduction and Chapters 4, 5 and 9)
(additional articles to be distributed by instructor)
8am
depart
Depart for visit to Boston
Meet at JNBC
10amnoon
Tour of Museum of Fine Arts new American Wing with
Dennis Carter, Curator of Decorative Art and Sculpture,
Art of the Americas
Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston
12-2pm
Lunch and independent visiting of the museum
2-6pm
Tour/heritage scavenger hunt of the Freedom Trail
and/or visiting Quincy Market and Fanieul Hall
Travel by ‘T’
6pm
BBQ at Emily Stokes-Rees’ home (we will take the ‘T’
together)
9pm
Return to Providence
Week 3 – Conversation
Required Readings
Rina Benmayor, “Contested Memories of Place: Representations of Salinas’ Chinatown” Oral History Review,
2010
Linda Shopes, “Oral History and the Study of Communities: Problems, Paradoxes and Possibilities” Journal
of American History. Vol 89, 2002.
Suggested reading for Plimoth Plantation field trip/assignment:
S.E. Snow, Performing the Pilgrims: A Study of Ethnohistorical Role-playing at Plimoth Plantation. University
of Mississippi Press, 1993. (selections of your choice)
Leon and Piatt, “Living History Museums” in Leon and Rosenzweig, eds. History Museum in the United
States. 1989.
G&P Gutek. Chapters on Plimoth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village in their volume, Experiencing
America’s Past.
*ASSIGNMENT - Write a reflective paper that examines the ways that history is inscribed on the natural
and man-made landscape of Fox Point. You should base your reflections on careful exploration of the
neighborhood. Go out to walk and look closely at Fox Point. [Fox Point goes from Williams Street down to
the waterfront; and from South Main Street to Gano Street.] How is history preserved and marked? What
narratives and counter narratives emerge? What history is not told through the physical landscape of this
place?
Tuesday July 26 – Counter Narratives of cultural heritage
9-12
Session on ‘Memory, community, history’
Prof Anne Valk
JNBC Seminar Room
12-1pm
Lunch
1-4pm
Walking tour of Fox Point Community with
Prof Anne Valk
Meet on steps of JNBC
6:309pm
Pizza and screening of Some Funny Kind of Porto
Rican with discussion to follow led by Prof Anne
Valk
Rhode Island Hall
Thursday July 28 – Sharing ‘Living’ Histories
9am-
Trip to Plimoth Plantation
Plymouth, MA
4pm
Meet on steps of JNBC
*ASSIGNMENT – Now that you have visited both Old Sturbridge Village and Plimoth Plantation,
write a brief reflection comparing the two sites. Which style of interpretation do you think worked
better? Why? What other observations did you make about issues of preservation/living history
while you were there?
Saturday and Sunday, July 30-31st – 2-Day Trip to New York City
Reading in preparation for the trip:
Larry Lowenthal, Andrew Dolkart and Judith Baumwoll, "National Historic Landmark Nomination:
Tenement Building at 97 Orchard Street", October 8, 1993.
“MOCA on the move” (http://www.mocanyc.org/support_moca/moca_on_the_move)
Jack Kuo Wei Tchen, “Creating a Dialogic Museum: The Chinatown History Museum Experiment,”
in Ivan Karp, et. al., eds., Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture (Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992): 285-326.
7am
depart
Depart for New York
Timing
TBD
While in New York:
-Lower East Side Tenement Museum
-Eldridge Street Synagogue
-Museum of Chinese in America
Sun
eve.
Return to Providence
Meet at JNBC
Week 4 – Interpretation
Readings:
Alpers, S. (1991). The museum as a way of seeing.' In, I. Karp & S.D. Lavine (Eds.). Exhibiting
cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute Press.
Mieke Bal, “The Talking Museum,” in Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis, London:
Routedge, 1996, 87-134
M. A. Wallace 2006 ‘Introduction’ to his book, Museum branding, Alta Mira.
F. Kaplan 1994. ‘Introduction’ to her book, Museums and the making of ourselves, Leicester
University Press.
Tuesday August 2 – Museum Interpretation of Heritage
9am
depart
Depart for Haffenreffer Museum Research Center,
Bristol
Meet at JNBC
10-4
Series of talks and workshops with Haffenreffer
Museum staff:
Steve Lubar – Museum Interpretation of Heritage and
the History of the Haffenreffer Museum
Geralyn Hoffman – Taking ‘Heritage’ to the public
Emily S-R – Why Study Objects?
Thierry Gentiss – Collections Management and object
handling
4pm
Haffenreffer Museum
Collections Research Center,
Bristol RI
Return to Providence
*ASSIGNMENT – Write a short summary of what you learned about the collections at the
Haffenreffer. What impressed you? What surprised you? What did you not see?
Wednesday August 3 – Day trip to Newport, Rhode Island
9am
Meet at bus stop ‘Q’ at Kennedy Plaza to take bus to Newport (free with Brown ID)
10am-noon
Newport Historical Society walking tour of Colonial architecture
2-4pm
Individual time for exploring, shopping etc.
4pm
Meet to return together to Providence
Thursday August 4 – Heritage and Creativity
9-12
Session on ‘Cultural Heritage and Cultural
Creativity/Branding’ with Dr Ian Russell
12-1pm
Lunch
1-4pm
Session/site visit – RISD Museum
Sarah Ganz Blythe and Ian Russell
JNBC Seminar Room
RISD Museum
*ASSIGNMENT - Choose a Museum and analyze and critique its branding
Friday August 5th - Closing Reception/Event - TBD