2017

What is Critical Heritage Studies and how does it incorporate the discipline of history?

1 Comment / Preservation Doctrine / By / December 2, 2022

At the recent meeting of the US chapter of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies, a frequent question, especially from graduate students, was “what is critical heritage studies”? There was a wide range of responses to this question, often from disciplinary perspectives, which should not be surprising given the very recent arrival of this field …

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Comment on NR Bulletin update

2 Comments / Preservation Policy Reform / By / December 2, 2022

The National Park Service has requested public comments on a proposed update to the “National Register Bulletin: How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations.” (Deadline of May 1, 2017.) I am sharing the comment that I left, which focuses on the need to update the bulletin to move beyond narrow 1950s era thinking about the …

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New publication: “Are We ‘Ensnared in the System of Heritage’ Because We Don’t Want to Escape?”

4 Comments / Preservation Doctrine, Preservation Policy Reform / By / December 2, 2022

Jeremy C. Wells. (2017). Are We ‘Ensnared in the System of Heritage’ Because We Don’t Want to Escape? Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress. DOI 10.1007/s11759-017-9316-8 ABSTRACT This paper explores why heritage practitioners continue to embrace the objective security of positivism, building on Sharon Veale’s (cited in Sullivan 2015:114) observation that we are ‘”ensnared …

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“How Are Old Places Different from New Places? A Psychological Investigation of the Correlation between Patina, Spontaneous Fantasies, and Place Attachment”

Leave a Comment / Placemaking & Design, Preservation Doctrine / By / December 2, 2022

The International Journal of Heritage Studies just published my article on “How Are Old Places Different from New Places? A Psychological Investigation of the Correlation between Patina, Spontaneous Fantasies, and Place Attachment.” This is an example of the kind of research that I’m hoping more environmental psychologists will have an interest in exploring. We need …

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Book review: Monumental Ambivalence: The Politics of Heritage by Lisa Breglia

Leave a Comment / Preservation Doctrine, Preservation Policy Reform / By / December 2, 2022

I wrote this book review in 2007 when I was a doctoral student, but due to pressing issues with my dissertation, it was never published. Monumental Ambivalence deserves more attention, as it foreshadowed many of the contemporary debates in critical heritage studies. MONUMENTAL AMBIVALENCE: THE POLITICS OF HERITAGE by Lisa Breglia. Austin: University of Texas …

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Leadership in “people-centered preservation” — who seems to get it and who does not

3 Comments / Preservation Doctrine, Preservation Policy Reform / By / December 2, 2022

Those of you who read my blog know that I have a strong interest in balancing the practice of the conservation of the built environment and cultural landscapes between what we objectively know (e.g., historic facts; things we can photograph, measure) and meanings (e.g., intangible heritage). All of this relates to making heritage conservation more …

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