Program Overview

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MA in Cultural Heritage Management

The MA in Cultural Heritage Management is an innovative, online graduate degree that immerses students in a broad context of cultural heritage issues, including social, environmental, and economic trends. This program gives students the qualifications to assume leadership and management roles in the cultural heritage sector.

Overview

The challenges of the 21st century and the expansion of heritage tourism worldwide have increased the need for forward-thinking management and preservation strategies. With a focus on emergent technology and its impact on conservation, preservation, and engagement, together with integrated approaches to management, and community and stakeholder partnerships, Johns Hopkins University offers this innovative degree.

Program Principles

The program is built around several guiding principles:

• An inclusive definition of heritage beyond sites, monuments, and artifacts, to include full landscapes, environments, and intangible heritage.
• Recognition of grassroots efforts and community buy-in as critical to successful management strategies.
• Support for an integrated approach to management and a wide understanding of its ties to sustainability, development, and community.
• Full advantage of the online medium by focusing on emergent technologies related to the field and their impact on preservation, engagement, documentation, and asset management.
• A global lens, situating the local, regional, and national within a global context.

Admissions Criteria

Applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree in study areas relevant to the curriculum. They must also submit:

• A statement of purpose describing personal background and goals.
• Two letters of recommendation.
• A resume.

Program Requirements

Students must complete a total of 10 courses:

• Three required core courses.
• Three customizable core courses.
• Four elective courses.

Course List

The required and customizable core courses, as well as the elective courses, are as follows:

Required Core Courses

• AS.465.702: Studies in World Heritage.
• AS.465.704: Cultural Heritage Management/Leadership.
• AS.465.708: Two-Week Onsite Cultural Heritage Management Seminar 1.

Customizable Core Courses

Students select three from the following:

• AS.465.707: Reading the Landscape: Cultural Heritage at Scale.
• AS.465.710: The Protection of Global Cultural Heritage: Laws, Policies, Politics, and Advocacy.
• AS.465.720: Issues in Intangible Cultural Heritage.
• AS.465.730: Heritage Interpretation.
• AS.465.732: Engaging Communities in Heritage.
• AS.465.740: Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age.

Electives

Students select four from the following:

• AS.465.706: Research/Capstone in Heritage Studies.
• AS.465.714: Culture as Catalyst for Sustainable Development.
• AS.465.716: Cultural Heritage Risk Management and Security.
• AS.465.718: Public Monuments and Collective Memory.
• AS.465.734: Heritage Tourism.
• AS.465.736: Understanding NAGPRA, Repatriation Laws and Ethical Practice.
• AS.465.746: Reality Capture: Heritage Documentation for Analysis, Conservation, and Outreach.
• AS.460.671: Foundations of Digital Curation.
• AS.460.750: Internship.

Learning Outcomes

The curriculum prepares graduates to:

• Analyze changes in the heritage field through an assessment of their theoretical and practical impacts.
• Build leadership capacities that contribute to the growth, development, and sustainability of the heritage field.
• Examine the role of new methods and techniques (including digital technology) in the field of heritage.
• Articulate the roles of policy and advocacy in the broader heritage field.
• Evaluate the impact of heritage designation at various scales from the local to the global.
• Explore the roles of multiple constituencies in heritage management.
• Create strategies for heritage management.
• Integrate academic knowledge with applied experience unique to the field of heritage.