Whose Heritage?: National Landmarks for Diverse Publics

In this course students examine the commemoration of specific sites, private and public, in creating, remembering, and preserving public history. Through theoretical readings, case studies, and workshops, students explore the intersection of people—as individuals, community members, and citizens— with their built environment, historic memory, and narrative. We explore how cultural heritage gets made, who chooses the sites, and whose history gets remembered by writing a U.S. National Park Service Landmark nomination for a local Chinese American site. The course also compares American cultural heritage programs with those of other countries and provides practical experience with National Park Service processes.