Decolonising the Heritage of Slavery and Colonialism ARCH5124
- Academic Session: 2025-26
- School: School of Humanities
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
- Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
- Collaborative Online International Learning: No
Short Description
This course engages students with the current debates on decolonial heritage around slavery and colonialism. It covers how the past and surviving heritage of slavery and colonialism within and outside museum space reflect or justify imbalance, inequality and injustice in society. The course involves critical engagement with issues related to the enduring silence, alienation and narrow interpretation and presentation of the heritage of slavery and colonialism. It affords participants the opportunity to learn current and emerging decolonial thinking and practice around using heritage narratives to attempt to repair, reconcile and balance the existing societal imbalance, inequality and injustice for a fairer society.
Timetable
10x 1 hour lectures and 10x 1 hour seminars per week for 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.
Requirements of Entry
Standard entry to Masters at College Level.
Excluded Courses
None
Co-requisites
None
Assessment
Review essay (1500 words): - 50%
Report (2500 words): critical decolonial report on a case study of heritage of slavery or colonialism - 50%
Course Aims
This course aims to:
■ Engage with methodological and theoretical reasoning on decolonisation of power and knowledge using heritage collected/created during and after slavery and colonialism in and outside museum space.
■ Interrogate issues of the coloniality of knowledge and power within heritage discourse and how they contribute to shaping imbalance in modern times.
■ Enable students to analyse and engage with critical issues of narrowed representation and silencing that are noticeable in the heritage of slavery and colonialism.
■ Develop students' critical and analytical skills through the knowledge and understanding of how proper representation and contextualisation of the entire histories associated with the heritage of slavery and colonialism can begin the healing process of past injustices.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
■ Apply decolonial frameworks for analysing the heritage of slavery and colonialism in and outside museum space.
■ Understand many ways in which heritage may support or sustain injustice in and outside museum context.
■ Evaluate the impact of decolonisation of the heritage of slavery and colonialism in society.
■ Critically advocate ways to use heritage narratives to attempt to address the existing inequality in society.
Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits
Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components of the course's summative assessment.