International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies
Position:Graduate Student
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- Citizenship, Immigration Status & Nationality
- Collective Memory
- Cultural Heritage
- Cultural Studies
- Cultural Theory
- Culture
- Education
- Identity (Culture)
- Identity politics
- Inclusion
- Multicultural Education
- Museum Education
- Museum Studies
- Museum learning
- Museums and Identity
- National Identity
- National Museums
- Nationalism
- Nationhood
- Place and Identity
- Race and Ethnicity
- Scottish Culture
- Scottish Studies
- Self and Identity
- Social Identity
- Sociology of Identity
- Sociology of Scotland
Talks
From ‘Representing the Nation’ to ‘Constructing the Self’: The Personal Significance of Heritage in Everyday Life
| Where: | The Re/theorisation of Heritage Studies, Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Inaugural Conference , University of Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Dates: | 5th June 2012 - 8th June 2012 |
| When: | 7th June 2012 |
This paper examines how young people in Scotland construct and utilise concepts of ‘heritage’ when negotiating national identity and cultural diversity. It argues that whilst there are a wealth of site-based studies that focus on the relationship between heritage and national identity, there is currently little theoretical understanding of how heritage operates in individual’s constructions of national identity and what impact this has on their perceptions of others. Drawing upon sociological perspectives that argue that studies of state-level nationalism fail to account for how national identity operates at the level of the individual, this paper seeks to move away from the deconstruction and critique of ‘official’ discourses of heritage that have historically dominated the field. Instead it attempts to examine how people construct and utilise the concept of heritage in their daily lives. It also outlines the methodological and theoretical challenges that have been encountered in such an approach.
Heritage plays a key role in the construction of Scotland as an ‘inclusive’ nation in public policy. The Scottish National Party (SNP) Government highlights heritage as a means of building a ‘strong, fair and inclusive national identity’ (Scottish Government 2009). However, there is little empirical research into whether this definition of an ‘inclusive’ heritage corresponds with the way that individuals conceptualise heritage. Whilst theorists such as Bechhofer and McCrone (2009) argue that Scottish people’s strong sense of identity is attributed to a powerful sense of culture and heritage, there are few studies that focus on what this means in practice. Does a strong sense of heritage produce an exclusivist understanding of identity? Or does engagement with heritage facilitate inclusive definitions of identity? By addressing these questions this paper explores the gap between heritage as defined in policy and public understandings of heritage.
The Case of the Tartan Turban: National Identity and Cultural Diversity in Scottish Museums
| Where: | Museum 2011-International Conference on Building Identity: The Making of National Museums and Identity Politics, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan |
| Dates: | 16th November 2011 - 18th November 2011 |
| When: | November 2011 |
This paper examines two Scottish museum displays that explicitly aim to construct an ‘inclusive’ understanding of national identity: Scotland: A Changing Nation in the National Museum of Scotland and Scottish identity in Art in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Although reflective of wider UK museological practice, I argue that these displays need to be understood as a response to a distinctly Scottish set of political debates and policies. Through utilising the work of Ashworth et al. (2007), who identify five models for understanding the role that heritage plays in shaping collective identities, I suggest that the representation of minorities in these displays is reflective of a cross-party Scottish political agenda that aims to shape public constructions of national identity as ‘civic’ rather than ‘ethnic’. Consequently, minority identities are represented in the displays as ‘exotic embellishments’ that enhance and strengthen the ‘core culture’, rather than threatening established definitions of Scottishness.