Program Overview

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Overview

As an MPhil or PhD student in Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies you'll be based in the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS). ICCHS is a leading academic centre for research and teaching at Newcastle. It is internationally renowned for its research. It secures significant support (around £3m since 2008) from a variety of funders, such as the UK Research Councils and the European Commission.

You'll join a thriving, high-profile interdisciplinary research community of postgraduate research students and experienced academic researchers who are key figures in their fields.

Our academic supervisors have significant experience and expertise in interdisciplinary research. They practice in the UK and abroad.

We place emphasis on empirical research and a grounding in professional practice. Our research alumni have been successful in securing careers in:

academia

governmental organisations

the cultural and creative industry sectors worldwide

Our research students pursue a variety of topics that explore both historical and contemporary issues with local, national and international dimensions. They have also consistently achieved high submission and completion rates in their chosen programme of study. Recent student research topics in ICCHS include:

attitudes towards human remains

constructions and uses of Welsh identity in American museums

the social roles and regulation of art museum education in China and Taiwan

the management and interpretation of archaeological sites in Turkey

meaning making around historic photographic collections on Flickr

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Key research themes

Our key research themes are:

Cultural politics and policy

factors that determine how cultural policy is constructed, institutionally, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally

how management strategies affect heritage resources

the impact of large-scale constitutional change upon cultural policy

intended and unintended consequences of implementing international conventions, charters and instruments

contribution of research to cultural policy construction

the intersection of political movements and agendas with heritage

definitions and attributed values of heritage

Identity, community and place

construction and representation of identities, places and communities through heritage

how heritage is used by, and for, communities

relationships between notions of place and identities, communities, and heritages locally regionally, nationally and internationally

principles of community museology and ecomuseology practice in different contexts

relationships between heritage tourism and identities, communities and places

identities produced through the consumption of heritage

relationship between identity construction and wellbeing

Media and representation

how media works in heritage organisations and how organisations work as media

factors shaping the production, morphology and consumption of media and media representations in heritage organisations

representations made possible through institutional technologies specific to heritage organisations and how they are analysed to understand culture, society and knowledge

study and design of digital heritage applications and digital cultural engagement

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Important information

We've highlighted important information about your course. Please take note of any deadlines.

Your course and study experience - disclaimers and terms and conditions

Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption, for example in response to Covid-19.

View our Academic experience page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2022-23.

See our terms and conditions and student complaints information, which gives details of circumstances that may lead to changes to programmes, modules or University services.