Cultural Policy: Cultural Heritage and Cultural Diplomacy
Professor Rosemary Joyce
Anthropology 136G
Letter graded
4 units
3 hours of lecture /week
This course frames museums within issues of cultural heritage (repatriation, the
international traffic in antiquities, intangible cultural heritage) and cultural
diplomacy (implementation of the UNESCO Convention, development and
circulation of collaborative international exhibitions). Students will gain a basic
understanding of the structure of western museums; the history of the universal
museum; relationships between cultural property and national identity; and
contemporary cultural policy issues.
This course is designed to introduce students to the broad implications of the
control, management, investigation, presentation, and interpretation of collections
of things considered of cultural significance. A tradition of more than 400 years can
be traced from the sixteenth-century European collections made by a network of
nobles, merchants, and explorers to the universal museums of the nineteenth
century. Many of the universal museums established in the nineteenth century
persist today as national museums, exemplified by the Smithsonian Institution.
Participants in this seminar will be introduced to the contemporary workings of
museums, and will use frameworks provided to examine how they can be
understood as sites of knowledge creation.
Through exercises in the first half of the course, participants will work through
examples of cultural heritage management processes, gaining understanding of
international agreements, US national legislation, and inter-institutional guiding
policies such as those of the US Association of Art Museum Directors. The final
project will allow each participant to explore the application of a policy to a current
or historic problem of cultural heritage policy. Contemporary dilemmas to be
discussed in class in the final weeks of the semester may change to reflect emerging
situations or cases.
Basis for evaluation: This course assumes that students will engage in discussion
and debate in class. Regular attendance is therefore required. Beyond merely being
present, students need to participate in order to learn; so there will be exercises
assigned every week for eight of the first nine weeks, for a group of students to
prepare for in-class discussion of specific source documents; each student will be
assigned to collaborate in five such exercises over the course of the semester. The
single largest assignment is a final class project. Each student will complete two
preliminary stages for this project during the semester. As a practice-based course,
the completed final project will take the place of a final exam.
Attendance:
In-class participation: five structured exercises (10% each) total
1
10%
50%
Seminar-long project:
two preliminary stages (10% each) total
20%
submitted final project including presentation in class:
20%
Week
Topic, documents for discussion, main due dates
1
Defining terms: what is "heritage"? what is "cultural heritage"?
Source document for discussion: 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention
http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/
2
Cultural heritage policy: the US model
Source document for discussion: 1961 Mutual Educational and Cultural
Exchange Act
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/iegps/fulbrighthaysact.pdf
3
Where do museums fit in? The Smithsonian as case study
Source document for discussion: 1846 US Congress 9 Stat 102
http://siarchives.si.edu/history/legal-history
4
In class discussion of final project options
5
Universal cultural heritage becomes national cultural property
Source document for discussion: 1970 UNESCO Convention on illicit traffic in
cultural property
http://eca.state.gov/files/bureau/unesco01.pdf
6
Universal museums today: lines of tension around "heritage"
Source documents for discussion: 2013 Guidelines on the Acquisition of
Archaeological Material and Ancient Art; 2004 Declaration on the Importance
and Value of Universal Museums
https://aamd.org/standards-and-practices;
http://icom.museum/media/icom-news-magazine/icom-news-2004-no1/
First stage of final project: proposed topic and sources due
7
Recognizing cultural property claims: the US model
Source document for discussion: 1983 Cultural Property Implementation Act
http://eca.state.gov/files/bureau/97-446.pdf
8
Bringing cultural heritage home: Repatriation in the US and abroad
Source documents for discussion: 1990 Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act; 1992 Task Force on Museums and First Peoples, Canada,
Report "Turning the Page"
http://www.cr.nps.gov/local-law/FHPL_NAGPRA.pdf;
http://caid.ca/RRCAP3.6.A.pdf
9
Intangible cultural heritage: Troubles with immaterial property
Source document for discussion: 2003 UNESCO Convention on Intangible
Heritage
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/
Second stage of final project: draft discussion of relevant policy due
10
Contemporary dilemmas: Hopi and Navajo objects at French auctions
11
Contemporary dilemmas: Cultural property in the Syrian war zone
12
Contemporary dilemmas: "Shipwrecked" at the Freer Gallery of Art
13
In-class presentations of final projects for input for revision
14
Final discussion: culture, heritage, property: ethics, law, policy
2
3
Readings (in addition to selections from the books listed below, the final reading list will
include articles every week, some selected by students in consultation with the instructor;
see International Journal of Cultural Property for a range of options)
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2007) Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. Norton.
Cuno, James (2008) Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over our Ancient Heritage.
Princeton University Press.
Gerstenblith, Patty (2012) Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law 3rd edition. Carolina
Academic Press.
Halbertsma, Marlite, Alex van Stipriaan and Patricia van Ulzen, eds. (2011) The Heritage
Theater: Globalisation and Cultural Heritage. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Harrison, Rodney (2012) Heritage: Critical Approaches. Routledge.
Kapchan, Deborah, ed. (2014) Cultural Heritage in Transit: Intangible Rights as Human
Rights. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Kreps, Christina (2003) Liberating Culture: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Museums,
Curation, and Heritage Preservation. Routledge.
Luke, Christina, and Morag Kersel (2014) US Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology: Soft
Power, Hard Heritage. Routledge.
Meskell, Lynn (2011) The Nature of Heritage: The New South Africa. Wiley-Blackwell.
Price, Sally (2007) Paris Primitive: Jacques Chirac's Museum on the Quai Branly. University of
Chicago Press.
Turnbull, Paul, and Michael Pickering (2010) The Long Way Home: The Meaning and Values
of Repatriation. Berghahn.
4