90102 - ANTROPOLOGIA DEL PATRIMONIO

Course contents

The course is structured around the discipline of critical heritage studies, with the aim of identifying and interpreting evolving and multi-scalar forms of heritage and identity, and addressing issues of heritage justice. In addition to an introduction to the evolution of the concept of heritage, the course will focus critically and interdisciplinarily on how heritage - as an elaboration of artefacts, practices or ideas from the past - constitutes a part of and is used in ongoing political, economic, social and cultural processes, spanning local, national and global scales.

Readings/Bibliography

The compulsory texts (for attending and non-attending students) will be made available on virtual and are:

- Smith L., (2006) Uses of heritage. London, Routledge. (Minimum required readings: pages 1 to 114)

- Kisić V., (2016) Governing heritage dissonance. Amsterdam, European Cultural Foundation. (Minimum required readings: pp. 49 to 58; a chapter of your choice of 5, 6, 7 or 8; 271 to 296)

- Schofield J., (2024) Wicked Problems for Archaeologists: Heritage as Transformative Practice. Oxford, Oxford University Press. (Minimum required readings: Chapter 1; a chapter of your choice of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7)

Three classroom reading seminars will be held on these texts, compulsory for attending students.

One additional optional text in Italian:

- Harrison R. (2020) Il patrimonio culturale. Un approccio critico. Ediz Mylab.



Lectures will be supported by presentations containing all relevant information. Links to online documents and additional optional literature will be provided at the end of each lesson.

Week 1

Decreto Legislativo 22 gennaio 2004, n. 42, Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio, ai sensi dell'articolo 10 della legge 6 luglio 2002, n. 137.

Dezzi Bardeschi C. (a cura di) (2017) Abbeceddario Minimo ‘ANANKE. Firenze, Altralinea edizioni.

Spoormans, L. and Pereira Roders, A. (2021), "Methods in assessing the values of architecture in residential neighbourhoods", International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 490-506. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBPA-10-2019-0095.

Convenzione di Faro https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=199

World Heritage List https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

Week 2

Fairclough N., (1995) Critical discourse analysis: the criticial study of language. Longman Group Milited.

Tunbridge J. E., Ashworth G. J. (1996) Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict. Wiley.

Sen A. (2006). Identità e violenza. Editori Laterza.

Macdonald, S. (2008). Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203888667.

Assmann, A. (2009). From collective violence to a common future: Four models for dealing with a traumatic past. In R. Wodak & G. A. B. d’Olmo (Eds.), Justice and memory - Confronting traumatic pasts: An international comparison (pp. 14–22). Vienna: Passagen Verlag. (in Virtuale)

Carr, GC. (2014). The Legacy of Occupation: Archaeology, Heritage and Memory in the Channel Islands.

Wu, Z., Hou, S. (2015). Heritage and Discourse. In: Waterton, E., Watson, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137293565_3.

Legnér, M., Ristic, M., Bravaglieri, S. (2019) Contested heritage-making as an instrument of ethnic division. In: Ristic, M., & Frank, S. (Eds.). (2019) Urban Heritage in Divided Cities: Contested Pasts (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429460388.

Bravaglieri S. (2020) Conservare l’icona della Guerra Fredda: il muro di Berlino. ‘ANANKE 89, Gennaio 2020, 70-74.

Wollentz G. (2020) Landscapes of Difficult Heritage, Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan Cham.

Bravaglieri, S., Zenoni, E., Furioni, S. (2021) Beyond the Damage, the Reconstruction of L’Aquila. In: Arefian, F.F., Ryser, J., Hopkins, A., Mackee, J. (eds) Historic Cities in the Face of Disasters. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77356-4_16.

Legnér, M., Bravaglieri, S. (2021) The Politics of the Past in Kosovo: Divisive and Shared Heritage in Mitrovica. In: Bădescu, G., Baillie, B., Mazzucchelli, F. (eds) Transforming Heritage in the Former Yugoslavia. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76401-2_10.

Week 3

Burnell, Peter, Rakner, Lise and Randall, Vicky. Politics in the Developing World. 2014.

Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. 2012.

Hall, Stuart. The West and The Rest. Discourse and Power. 1992.

Nussbaum, Martha. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. 2013. - Nussbaum, Martha. Not for Profit Why Democracy Needs Humanities. 2010

Nussbaum, Martha. Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice. 2015

Sen, Amartya. Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. 2006

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Can the Subaltern Speak? 1988

Tronto, Joan C. Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality and Justice. 2013.

Week 4

Turunen, J. (2019). Decolonising European minds through Heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 26(10), 1013–1028. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2019.1678051

Verbeeck, G. (2019). Legacies of an imperial past in a small nation. Patterns of postcolonialism in Belgium.

European Politics and Society, 21(3), 292–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2019.1645422

Grechi, G. (2021). Decolonizzare il museo. Mostrazioni, pratiche artistiche, sguardi incarnati. Milano: Mimesis.

Guermandi, M. P. (2021). Decolonizzare il patrimonio. L'Europa, l'Italia e un passato che non passa. Roma: Lit Edizioni.

Urban Brussels (2023) Towards the decolonisation of public space in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Mazzucchelli, F. (2023). Volti del colonialismo. I calchi facciali dell’antropologia fisica di inizio novecento come corpi e come oggetti della memoria. Roma: Mimesis.

Week 5

Holtorf, C. (2014). Averting loss aversion in cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21(4), 405–421. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2014.938766

DeSilvey, C. (2017). Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving. University of Minnesota Press.

DeSilvey C., Fredheim H., Fluck H., Hails R., Harrison R., Samuel I., Blundell A. (2021) When Loss is More: From Managed Decline to Adaptive Release, The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice, 12:3-4, 418-433, DOI: 10.1080/17567505.2021.1957263

Dang, T. K. (2021). Decolonizing landscape. Landscape Research, 46(7), 1004–1016. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2021.1935820

Bluwstein, J., (2021) “Colonizing landscapes/landscaping colonies: from a global history of landscapism to the contemporary landscape approach in nature conservation”, Journal of Political Ecology 28(1), 904–927. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2850

Bravaglieri, S., & Schofield, J. (2023). Heritage itineraries and the ‘rest state’ at Europe’s Cold War-era Ground-launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) sites. Landscape Research, 48(7), 935–949. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2023.2205631

 

Teaching methods

The course will consist of theoretical lectures, group work and reading seminars. The presentation of the course content carried out in the theoretical lectures is supplemented by seminars with the participation of experts, the presentation of projects and the discussion of cases and good practices.


Non-attending students must notify the lecturer as soon as possible. In this case the examination procedure is different.

Assessment methods

Attendance and active participation in the lectures is highly recommended and will be taken into account in the final assessment. Students are considered to be attending if they participate in the three reading seminars, the site visit and the final presentation of the group work.


For attending students the grade will be made up of: 25% oral exam question, 30% reading seminars, 20% final paper, 25% group work.


For non-attending students, the examination will be oral and will consist of 2 questions on the three compulsory texts, and 1 question on the presentation of a critically analysed case study.

Teaching tools

Teaching tools will include traditional lessons with video projector and PC, on-site visits, and reading seminars.


Students who, for reasons dependent on disabilities or specific learning disorders, require compensatory tools may inform the teacher of their needs so that they can be referred to the contact persons and agree on the adoption of the most appropriate measures.

Office hours

See the website of Simona Bravaglieri