Cultural, Heritage, Environment and Power subprogram
Not convinced by standard, pop cultural explanations of human nature? You’re in the right place! In the Culture, Heritage, Environment, and Power subprogram, students interrogate cultural assumptions about what is “natural.” The idea of humans as separate from the environment is a colonial cultural construct that both enables and limits the way we think about place, time, landscapes, objects, and people different from ourselves, as well as facets of the other-than-human world such as plants, animals, waters, food, in the past and present.
Studying nature isn’t just about the environment though! What we conceive of as “natural” shapes the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, citizenship, indigeneity, and other forms of difference and belonging. In the 21st century, cultural and environmental conditions, as well as understandings of what “counts” as heritage, are inextricably entangled with the legacy of colonialism. In this subprogram, students learn how to historicize Western ways of knowing about the world, drawing on anthropological tools that help us see how different systems of knowledge relate to each other. Students learn theories and methods that permit more effective, inclusive, and ethical management of archaeological and cultural heritage in collaboration with a diverse array of engaged communities.
This kind of training provides students with exceptional opportunities for work and additional study. Students go onto careers in cultural resources management and archaeology, environmental planning, education and policy, and interpretation and outreach. They work for museums, non-profit organizations, Tribes, and public agencies, among others. Students also regularly pursue additional training in graduate school, including our own Cultural Heritage and Resources Management Master’s degree.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyze the roles that tangible and intangible, and natural and cultural, resources play in the relationship humans have with their environment, especially in processes of heritage creation and contestation.
- Critically evaluate the ways that humans-in-environment produce and are produced by differences in power and identity, and the possibilities for advocacy given these relationships.
Want to learn more? Review the HDAA Curriculum Map.
Description of Curriculum
Students in the CHEP subprogram take the required introductory course (HDAA 251 Communicating Heritage: Why the Past Matters in the Present) and then select three additional courses from the following list:
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