MA Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies

Key details

MA CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEUM STUDIES

Start Year

2022

Attendance

Full Time

Award

Degree of Master of Arts

Duration (years)

Museums and heritage bodies have a major influence on cultures and societies across the globe. They respond to and shape current moral, political, social, ethical and religious debates. By connecting the present to the past, they help shape the future.

On this postgraduate course you’ll develop an understanding of the history of museums and heritage bodies, and critically interrogate the theoretical models on which they’re based. At the same time, you’ll acquire knowledge of the practical approaches used in the 21st century museum and heritage sectors.

You’ll have opportunities to study the world-famous collection of art held in the Sainsbury Centre, itself a celebrated icon of modern museum architecture.

Placements are also a distinctive part of this course and offer you another way to develop your professional skills.

About

The greatest strength of this course is the way it combines the theory and practice of both cultural heritage and museum-based collections. You’ll be invited to think about museums and cultural heritage from a global perspective, whilst drawing on the wealth of nationally recognised institutions across the East Anglian region.

You’ll benefit from studying within the multi-disciplinary department of Art History and World Art Studies, learning from academic staff who approach museum studies and cultural heritage from a range of outlooks, including art historical, archaeological, and anthropological perspectives.

You’ll also have the chance to build your professional skills with the Museum and Heritage Practice module. This comprises a series of sessions that include presentations by senior industry experts and a work-based placement.

Placements might be in venues like the Castle Museum in Norwich, in country houses in East Anglia, or in the world famous Sainsbury Centre. Wherever your work-based placement is located, you’ll develop a wealth of key skills. The course will prepare you for a variety of careers in the museum and heritage sectors. Alternatively, you can use it to launch yourself into further research in the rapidly advancing fields of museum studies and cultural heritage.

September 2023 opportunities. Discover more

At A Crossroads

Since 2011, researchers from UEA’s Sainsbury Research Unit have been conducting yearly archaeological field trips to the banks of the Niger River in northern Benin, West Africa, as part of the Crossroads of Empires research project.

Medieval Parish Churches of Norwich

Fifty-eight parish churches are known to have stood within the walls of medieval Norwich. Despite damage and loss, thirty-one remain today, which is the largest concentration of urban medieval churches north of the Alps.

Sainsbury Centre

The Sainsbury Centre is one of the most prominent university art galleries in Britain, and a major national centre for the study and presentation of art.

LEARN MORE >

Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the courses listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the regular review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. Changes may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will inform students.

Assessment for Year 1

You’ll be assessed exclusively on coursework. Formative work is used to help prepare you for submission of summative coursework. Most of your coursework will be essay-based, requiring fully referenced academic prose. For some assessments you might need to deliver an in-class presentation, a project, or piece of reflective writing.

Structure

On this course you’ll take a number of compulsory modules covering a range of topics. In the module World Heritage: Problems and Prospects you’ll explore the 20th century development of heritage practices and its contemporary legacies. In Critical Perspectives in Museums and Heritage you’ll question and analyse approaches to collections, the built environment, and intangible heritage. By studying these two courses together you’ll gain a global perspective on heritage and museums, and the critical apparatus to consider practical industry issues and approaches.

In the module Interpretation and Participation in Museums and Heritage you’ll become conversant with different theories of learning and learning styles. You’ll also choose an optional module which addresses historical and contemporary museum and heritage practices.

In addition you’ll take the compulsory Museum and Heritage Practice module. Here you’ll gain industry-specific professional experience. As part of this module you’ll undertake a minimum of 15 days on placement with an appropriate heritage organisation or museum. This could be local, within the UK or overseas. You’ll also attend a series of sessions covering topics related to professional practice and skills. These will include current ‘state of the sector’ assessments by invited expert industry professionals, and career-preparation sessions including CV building.

You’ll write an independently researched dissertation on a topic of your own choosing, supported by an academic adviser. Your dissertation is a chance to immerse yourself in the aspect of the course that interests you most. It’s also a chance for you to demonstrate the kind of innovative scholarship which progresses our discipline.

Teaching and Learning

You’ll be taught in seminar groups where you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to discussions and engage with specialist readings. Where appropriate, modules will also include field trips or site visits.

The ability to study beyond the classroom will be vital to your success at postgraduate level. For each module you’ll be given reading lists which act as your starting point. You’ll also be encouraged to engage with museums and heritage sites by visiting exhibitions, installations and festivals, and by reading newly published professional and academic literature. You’ll be given research methods training and discipline-specific skills to support you in your independent study.

September 2023 opportunities. Discover more

Open Days

Assessment for Year 1

Compulsory Modules

MUSEUM AND HERITAGE PRACTICE

Code AMAA7000Y

Credits 40

On this module, you will gain direct experience of working in the heritage and museum sector. The exact details of your placement will be worked out with the module organiser, using – where possible – our connections with a range of museum and heritage organisations in Norwich, Norfolk, and East Anglia. There is also the possibility for you to undertake your work placement elsewhere if you wish, subject to appropriate approval and arrangements. At the end of the module, you will submit a written piece of work developed directly from your individual placement. This may be a professional piece of writing, such as a policy document, or a more reflexive piece of work, like a learning journal. Flexibility is built into this module in order to respond to individual student interests and to contemporary needs and issues in the professional sector.

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN MUSEUMS AND HERITAGE

Code AMAA7009A

Credits 20

Museums house our most celebrated heritage, yet their role in the world is often questioned. For instance, it is clear that the worldwide recognition of archaeological heritage also encourages iconoclasm. Indeed, the archaeology of ancient monuments was often part of regimes put in place by colonial empires. Current debates in museums and heritage engage with this legacy of empire in order to decolonize our heritage. This module will enable you to engage with these debates by studying critical approaches to museums and heritage. You’ll study the making of public museums in the nineteenth century; the development of the exhibitionary complex; the new museology; questions around ownership and repatriation; monuments and memorial museums; authenticity and authority; and the establishment of heritage regimes by UNESCO and national legislation. By presenting the most important debates in critical museum and heritage studies, this module will equip you with the required theoretical background for work in these institutions. Choosing your own subjects for seminar presentations, you can customise the module to suit your interests.

WORLD HERITAGE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Code AMAA7027B

Credits 20

WORLD HERITAGE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS World heritage has become a dominant concept in the social and scholarly fields of cultural heritage. It informs a diverse range of interpretive, political, legal, economic, and touristic activity. The rise of internationalism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has gone a long way in sustaining ideas and practices that inform ‘global’ heritage. These ideas and practices have been elaborated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and have been made tangible, in many instances, as World Heritage Sites. The centrality of world heritage to UNESCO and related organisations sets up a range of key questions that this module addresses: What are the universalistic underpinnings of the concept of world heritage and how do these play out in different contexts? How do World Heritage Sites and UNESCO figure in the field of Cultural Heritage Studies? How have exponents of different disciplines approached the uneven presence of world heritage in various historical and geo-cultural milieus? Through a full and critical engagement with such questions, students should be able to identify various scales of problems as well as prospects in world heritage. In its facilitation of informed and imaginative responses to these, the module could propel the students towards an on-going participation in and commitment to the field of Cultural Heritage Studies.

INTERPRETATION AND PARTICIPATION IN MUSEUMS AND HERITAGE

Code AMAA7027A

Credits 20

We offer active participative experiences rather than just opening the doors (Michael Day, CEO Historic Royal Palaces, 2017). Central to Museums and cultural heritage institutions are a shared set of practices relating to their public presentation. In this module, you’ll focus on the role of interpretation in cultural institutions, and vice versa. You’ll investigate how museums and heritage sites engage with their audiences, and who these audiences are. Access, understood in its broadest sense, involves all facets of work in the cultural sector, but presents unique issues as well, which you will examine in relation to academic theory, vocational skills, and topical research and debates.

Optional A Modules

(20 credits)

CURATING COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS

Code AMAA7032B

Credits 20

With an in-depth focus on recent and historical examples of exhibition display, this module will combine both practical and theoretical approaches to examine the development of contemporary curatorial practice. Engaging with a broad variety of curatorial strategies, we will discuss how established and emergent debates addressing decolonization, anti-racism, social inequality, social injustice, ecology, climate change and sustainability, have challenged and changed acquisition, display and programming conventions in museums locally and internationally. Pivotal to this discussion is an assessment of the role of interventions in museums, particularly by artists, and how they are used to diversify forms of discourse between institutions and their audiences.

CULTURAL HERITAGE & ARCHIVING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Code HUM-7011B

Credits 20

This module introduces you to the theoretical and practical study of digital heritage and archiving, through an engagement with the collections of the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) and the British Archive for Contemporary Writing (BACW). It will address theoretical developments in cultural heritage and digital humanities, comparing traditional approaches to archival principles and practices to new developments in preserving digital media. The module will allow you to explore practical issues of collection management and administration, including collection development, appraisal and accessioning policies, cataloguing and accessing data, copyright and licensing issues, and ethics and standards. It will take you through the ‘lifecycle’ of the archival object from acquisition to arrangement, description, preservation and subsequent access. Along this journey we will consider topics such as digitisation, migration, authenticity, restoration and copyright. At the end of the module you will have a good understanding of key issues and processes within the archive sector and be in a position to apply for internships or volunteer opportunities within UEA Archives or other heritage organisations.

Optional B Modules

(60 credits)

CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEUM STUDIES: DISSERTATION

Code AMAA7013X

Credits 60

During this year, you will write a dissertation on a topic relevant to the practice and theory of your degree programme. You can choose your own topic, subject to the approval of the Course Director. You can explore any aspect of museum or heritage studies as long as it engages with a question on either practical or theoretical aspects of museums or heritage. You will research and write the dissertation independently, though with the support of an appointed supervisor. The dissertation allows you to focus on an aspect of museums and heritage that enables you to raise your profile as a competent professional and future employee.

CRITICAL PRACTICE

Code AMAA7015X

Credits 60

This Critical Practice module provides students who are aiming to develop professional expertise with an opportunity to deepen their practical knowledge of relevant sectors. The module facilitates practical learning in a number of important ways, such as (i) engaging with representatives of heritage and museum sectors, (ii) testing and nurturing original and creative thinking, and (iii) developing outputs for professional and academic reception. The practical element will provide evidence of both professional engagement and critical reflection, and this will be developed with a view to applying, experimenting, or evaluating concepts and theories addressed in other areas of the MA programme. Whilst the students’ academic thinking and writing will be assessed, it is the practice-oriented work that will feature as the main driver of and for the student’s participation on the module.

September 2023 opportunities. Discover more

Open Days

Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring and review of modules. Where this activity leads to significant change to a programme and modules, the University will endeavour to consult with affected students. The University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. Availability of optional modules may be restricted owing to timetabling, lack of demand, or limited places. Where this is the case, you will be asked to make alternative module choices and you will be supported during this process.

Entry Requirements

Degree classification

UK BA (Hons) 2.1 or equivalent

Degree subject

Humanities or Social Sciences

Additional entry requirements

Alternative Qualifications

If you have alternative qualifications that have not been mentioned above then please contact the university directly for further information.

Assessment

All applications for postgraduate study are processed through the Admissions Office and then forwarded to the relevant School of Study for consideration. If you are currently completing your first degree or have not yet taken a required English language test, any offer of a place will be conditional upon you achieving this before you arrive.

Students for whom english is a foreign language

We welcome applications from students whose first language is not English. To ensure such students benefit from postgraduate study, we require evidence of proficiency in English. Our usual entry requirements are as follows:

IELTS: 6.0 (minimum 5.5 in two components only, with 6.0 in the other two)
PTE (Pearson): 64 (minimum 59 in only two components with 64 in the others)

Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.

Other tests, including Cambridge English exams and the Trinity Integrated Skills in English are also accepted by the university. The full list of accepted tests can be found here: Accepted English Language Tests

INTO UEA also run pre-sessional courses which can be taken prior to the start of your course. For further information and to see if you qualify please contact intopre-sessional@uea.ac.uk.

Interviews

Interviews are required for students applying to the MA in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies . If you are living overseas, these may be undertaken by telephone at a mutually convenient time. Please note that applicants who have not yet met the English Language requirement will still be expected to conduct an interview in English.

Intakes

This course is open to UK, EU and International applicants. This course's annual intake is in September of each year.

September 2023 opportunities. Discover more

At A Crossroads

Medieval Parish Churches of Norwich

Sainsbury Centre

The Sainsbury Centre is one of the most prominent university art galleries in Britain, and a major national centre for the study and presentation of art.

LEARN MORE >

Course Reference Number: 4478190

MA CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEUM STUDIES