Cultural heritage in historical perspective

• The students will learn the topics that will enrich their knowledge about the relation between history and memory studies..
• The students will learn the mechanisms of formation of the cultural heritage studies, which intertwines the individuality and generality, local and national.
• They will be capable of critical analyses of the problems. They will be able to find solutions by transferring their own or foreign experiences or by synthetizing their solutions due to the special conditions, studying and analysing tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

No prerequisites are required.

The main objective of the course is to understand the role of cultural heritage in the identification and reconstruction of local and national identity in the modern globalized world. At the same time students become familiar with the different relations of power and society to the inharitated norms, values and perception of heritage of different socio- political systems. A part of the lectures will be dedicated to the culturale heritage legislation, which is state policy encouraged/ discouraged and its preservation and protection.

In the first part of the course the students will learn about the different interpretations and the concept of heritage and its role in the identification and (re)construction of identity. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the different periods of valorisation of heritage and its function/ role today.
In the specific context of the analyzed museums as institutions of cultural heritage we will learn about heritage conservation practices today and how do public institutions fulfill their assignment as tutors of the national heritage. Students field work will be dedicated to local heritage preservation, in order to understand that heritage, which has stabilized in the life of a community handed down from generation to generation, is not only historical, but also development category in shaping the vision and strategy for the (collective) understanding of future.

In the second part the students will learn about the conservation law , which defines the various ways of protecting heritage. They will study the functions and actions of the various institutions involved in the study, evaluation, collection, preservation and protection of the cultural heritage ( museums, archives , Institute for preservation of cultural heritage , research institutes ... ).

• Students will be capable of detecting cultural-historical issues and social problems in general. They will solve these problems using different methodological approaches based on critical and self-critical judgment.
• The students will learn about different levels of historical knowledge based on different collective understanding of the past, from individual to collective memory experiences.
• The student will evaluate the past events and form their personal perspective of the topics.

• B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture. Tourism, Museums and Heritage. University of California Press, London, 1998. E-version
• P. C. Salzmann, Understanding Culture. An Introduction to Anthropological Theory. Waveland Press, Long Grove, 2001.
• Walsh, K. The representation of the past: museums and heritage in the postmodern world. Routledge, London, New York, 2001. E-version
• Benedict Anderson, Zamišljene skupnosti, Studia Humanitatis, 1998 Catalogue
• E. J. Hobsbawm , T. O. Ranger, The invention of tradition, Cambridge Univ.Press, 1983
• Bogataj, Sto srečanj z dediščino na Slovenskem, Ljubljana 1992. Catalogue
• Exhibiting Europe. The Development of European narratives in collections, museums and exhibitions, (Ed.), Cultural Unbound Special Edition, Berghahn Books, 2012;
• Eržen, Gradišnik, Valentinčič, Interpretacije dediščine, Slovensko etnološko društvo, Ljubljana 2014
• Jezernik, Kulturna dediščina in identiteta, Založba FF, Ljubljana 2010
• V. Perko, Muzeologija in arheologija za javnost: muzej Krasa, Kinetik, Ljubljana 2014
• EMEE Project, Museum kit manuals, Toolkit n. 2, 2014 http://www.museums-exhibiting-europe.de/toolkit-manuals-activity-8/
• J. R. Gillis, Commemorations. The Politics of National Identity, New Jersey Princeton, 1994 E-version
• On the lecture set, students will receive articles which they will have to study until the exam.

Seminar paper with presentation (50%) and oral exam (50%).

Kaja Širok, PhD, works as the director of the National Museum of Contemporary History. Her research focuses on border regions, in connection to national historical narratives and memory studies inside the issues of identity formation, commemoriation, contested memories, (re)interpretations of history.

ŠIROK, Kaja. Kalejdoskop goriške preteklosti : zgodbe o spominu in pozabi, (Zbirka Kulturni spomin, knj. 2). Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2012.

GRABAR, Nika, ŠIROK, Kaja, VOVK, Martina. Parlament - tri zgodbe : arhitektura, umetnost, spomin. Ljubljana: Muzej novejše zgodovine Slovenije, 2012.

ŠIROK, Kaja, PURG, Urška. (Re)interpretacije dediščine muzejskih zbirk : oblikovanje podob preteklosti v evropskem kontekstu. V: DOLŽAN ERŽEN, Tatjana (ur.), SLAVEC GRADIŠNIK, Ingrid (ur.), VALENTINČIČ FURLAN, Nadja (ur.). Interpretacije dediščine, (Knjižnica Glasnika Slovenskega etnološkega društva, 48). Ljubljana: Slovensko etnološko društvo, 2014, str. 128-137, 279-280.

ŠIROK, Kaja: Museums Exibiting Europe (EMEE); Toolkit n.2
http://www.museums-exhibiting-europe.de/toolkit-manuals-activity-8/

ŠIROK, Kaja. Tujerodec : italijanska koncentracijska taborišča med spominom in pozabo. V: TOFFOLO, Davide. Italijanska zima. 1. izd. Ljubljana: Društvo za oživljanje zgodbe 2 koluta: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU, 2011,

ŠIROK, Kaja. Kolektivni spomin, pričevalec in zgodovina : diskurzivne konstrukcije preteklosti. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185, 2012, letn. 20, št. 1/2, str. 137-150.
ŠIROK, Kaja. Identitete, zgodovina in dediščina prostora - prakse spominjanja in komemoracije na Goriškem v XX. stoletju. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185, 2012, letn. 20, št. 4, str. 631-646,
ŠIROK, Kaja. Spomin in pozaba na obmejnem območju : predstave o goriški preteklosti. Acta Histriae, ISSN 1318-0185, 2010, letn. 18, št. 1/2, str. 337-358
ŠIROK, Kaja. Okus spomina : refleksija na obdobje Zavezniške vojaške uprave v življenjskih zgodbah pričevalcev. V: ŠUŠTAR, Branko (ur.), HAKL SAJE, Maja (ur.). Zgodovina je slastna : kulturna zgodovina hrane. 100 let začetka prve svetovne vojne : programska knjižica. Ljubljana: ZZDS, 2014, str. 21.

ŠIROK, Kaja. Gradnja zgodovine, ustvarjanje spomina : vojni spomeniki v vojnah spomina = Building history, creating memory : war memorials in memory wars. V: HUREMOVIČ, Tina (ur.). Disonantna dediščina 20. stoletja = Dissonant heritage of the 20th century. [Ljubljana]: Forum slovanskih kultur: = Forum of Slavic Cultures, 2013, str. 34-35

ŠIROK, Kaja. Which history? Whose memory? : the power of memory in borderland identity making. V: The wages of nationhood : conflicts, compromises and costs : convention papers. [New York: Columbia University Press], 2012,

ŠIROK, Kaja. Commemoration and remembrance practices in Slovenia : adoption of Holocaust Remembrance Day and its discursive formation in everyday Slovene media. V: The holocaust in Yugoslavia : history, memory and culture - a reappraisal. [Jerusalem]: Yad Vashem, [2013],

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