NEH Enduring Questions Course on "What Is Worth Preserving?"

FAIN: AQ-50920-13

Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI 53233-2225)
Gerry Canavan (Project Director: September 2012 to September 2015)

The development of an upper-level undergraduate course on the question, What is worthy of preservation?

This project seeks to initiate a new interdisciplinary course in the humanities titled “What Is Worth Keeping?” This course will explore conflicts between economic and non-economic theories of value as they relate to the preservation of cultural heritage and natural resources. “What Is Worth Keeping?” draws on varied texts and methods from literature, philosophy, art, history, economics, ecology, and postcolonial theory to ask what from the past (and the present) should be preserved for future generations. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to articulate the centrality of cultural heritage to political struggles over the future, as well as participate in contemporary debates around preservation and evaluate differing views of heritage preservation across eras and cultures. A “What Is Worth Keeping?” symposium to be held at Marquette in 2015, drawing on both the local academic community and invited speakers, will serve as a capstone for the two-year project.

Associated Products

Cultural Preservation Today (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Cultural Preservation Today
Author: Gerry Canavan
Author: Julia Hell
Author: George Steinmetz
Author: John Patrick Leary
Author: Stephen Small
Abstract: “Cultural Preservation Today” will be a one-day symposium sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, held in the Raynor Beaumier Suite BC at the Raynor Library on Friday, March 27, 2015 from 10-3 PM. The program will consist of two sessions, each discussing problems and issues facing contemporary efforts to preserve culture. In session one, from 10-12 PM, Dr. John Patrick Leary (Wayne State) and Dr. George Steinmetz (Michigan) will discuss “Ruins & the City,” focusing on ruin photography in post-industrial cities like Milwaukee and Detroit, and the sorts of cultural narratives that now come out of these sites of memory. In session two, from 1-3 PM, “Remembering Things That Are Hard to Remember,” Dr. Julia Hell (Michigan) and Dr. Stephen Small (Berkeley) will discuss the memorialization of historical events, like slavery, war, and the Holocaust. Both sessions will use a “workshop” format, with each speaker speaking for approximately half an hour, followed by breakout groups and Q&A. Attendance at both sessions is not required. The event is sponsored by an “Enduring Questions” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is the culminating event of two years of the special topics course made possible by the grant, ENGL 4931: “Cultural Preservation.” Students, faculty, and staff interested in attending the event should contact Dr. Gerry Canavan (English) at gerry.canavan@marquette.edu for registration information. Both sessions are free of charge, and a light lunch will provided for attendees in the middle.
Date Range: March 27, 2015
Location: Marquette University
Primary URL: https://mucp2015.wordpress.com/symposium/
Primary URL Description: descriptive webpage

ENGLISH 4931: Cultural Preservation (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: ENGLISH 4931: Cultural Preservation
Author: Gerry Canavan
Abstract: This is the Marquette University undergraduate course developed by the Enduring Questions grant. It was taught two times as a special topics course in the English department, in Spring 2014 and Spring 2015; the plan now is to make it a permanent part of the English bulletin under the revised name "Material Cultures"
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://mucp2015.wordpress.com
Primary URL Description: This is the course site for the second offering of the course (Spring 2015).
Secondary URL: http://muculturalpreservation.wordpress.com
Secondary URL Description: This is the course site for the first offering of the course (Spring 2014).
Audience: Undergraduate

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