DLCL 21N: Global Cultural Heritage: Past, Present, Future
Please note, this seminar has been cancelled for 2024-25.
Course Description
What remains of the world’s cultures will future generations be able to discover and decipher, and how will they interpret the monuments, documents, languages, and sites that remain? How will they access the technologies we have already created for making our way through the world? How will they understand the environmental changes that current humans have caused? What damage has already been caused and how much of the past is being lost on an annual basis? Why do we even want to preserve human cultural remains? And how does an encounter with the past inform one’s own future? This IntroSem takes a humanistic perspective on sustainability, viewing the entire human record itself as a resource and exploring how it might be sustained in an ethical and meaningful way.
Meet the Instructors: Kathryn Starkey & Elaine Treharne
Kathryn Starkey
"I’m a professor of medieval and German Studies, and my research focuses on material and textual remains. Many of my articles and books focus on objects–manuscripts, textiles, weapons, clothing, etc.–and explore how these were situated and interpreted in their historical context as well as how they “speak” to us today. I first became interested in medieval culture through literature–specifically the story of Beowulf–along with other legends and fairy tales that emerged in the Middle Ages and have remained sources of inspiration for writers until today. Our seminar is not focused on the medieval period, but rather explores cultural remains from across time, interrogating the lasting impact of cultural production."
Elaine Treharne
"I’m a professor of Humanities and English and I study early cultures and the history of handwriting and textual production. In my work, I ask what it means to engage with, and preserve, the past. I am intellectually energised by remnants of human endeavor and historical landscape–buildings, monuments, books, art–and my work with manuscripts and edifices makes me think constantly about how earlier peoples conceived of and interacted with the world around them. This encourages me to ask how and why should we connect with those who came before us, and what, then, can the past teach us? Many of my publications have focused on textual objects, and I am struck by how much each one reveals about its producers and users, including those who colonize and appropriate others’ cultures. Our seminar will be a fantastic chance to explore how people now interact with the past, and to understand how significant the traces of the past are, especially for social identity and personal formation in the present day."
