PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Premise
The preservation and interpretation of the built environment is interconnected with both social and environmental sustainability and integrated within discourses and practices surrounding other tangible and intangible heritages happening in museums, archeological sites, and elsewhere. This concentration seeks local solutions while engaging in global conversations; emphasizes hands-on engagement with communities and organizations; challenges authorized heritage discourses; diversifies approaches and practices of engaging with the past; and promotes the stories and sites that foreground the heritage of underrepresented communities.
The College of Arts + Architecture's Center for Community, Heritage, and the Arts (CHArt) is a hub for research and actifity in this area. Faculty researching, teaching, and mentoring students in Deign Computation include:
- Nadia Anderson, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design
- Dr. Matthew Gin, Assistant Professor of Architectural History
- Dr. Willie Griffin, Assistant Professor of Public History
- Dr. Lidia Klein, Assistant Professor of Architectural Historyhttps://coaa.charlotte.edu/people/lidia-klein
- Dr. Emily Makas, Associate Professor of Architectural History and Heritage, Co-Director of CHArt
- Dr. Tina Shull, Associate Professor and Director of Public History
We envision a future when the valued, protected, and preserved heritage locally in North Carolina - as well as globally among all societies - encompasses both that which has been traditionally appreciated as well as the heritage of previously underrepresented and misrepresented communities. We hope to empower those communities, and individuals within them, to participate with others in conversations about the tangible and intangible legacies of the past.
We believe that to move toward that future, we need to attract and train a more diverse group of heritage professionals, remove barriers to heritage education and training opportunities, and build a curriculum that de-centers traditional preservation practices while privileging other voices and including communities and community organizations in the conversation.
We propose a Master’s degree program that seeks local solutions while engaging in global conversations; emphasizes hands-on engagement with communities and organizations; challenges authorized heritage discourses; diversifies approaches and practices of engaging with the past; and promotes the stories and sites that foreground the heritage of underrepresented communities. In addition, we see the preservation and interpretation of the built environment as interconnected with both social and environmental sustainability and integrated within discourses and practices surrounding other tangible and intangible heritages happening in museums, archeological sites, and elsewhere.
Mission
To diversify the field of heritage professionals and the heritage preserved by providing training that situates historic preservation in a critical and transdisciplinary context, engages the global and local, diversifies approaches and practices, and promotes experiential learning, community engagement, and social and environmental sustainability.
Positions
This program would be ideologically rooted in ideas posed by the Association of Critical Heritage Studies’ 2012 manifesto and UNESCO’s 2011 Historic Urban Landscapes recommendations, including:
Criticality
We seek "uncomfortable questions”, challenges to traditional and “authorized heritage discourses”, and a focus on the interests of the marginalized and excluded. We assert that “heritage is, as much as anything, a political act and we need to ask serious questions about the power relations that ‘heritage’ has all too often been invoked to sustain. Nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, cultural elitism, Western triumphalism, social exclusion based on class and ethnicity, and the fetishising of expert knowledge have all exerted strong influences on how heritage is used, defined and managed.”
Interdisciplinarity
We acknowledge that heritage encompasses a range of tangible and intangible inheritances from the past that have value for the present and should be be conserved for the future. We argue that understanding architectural heritage is most fruitful when done when contextualized with other forms of heritage. We advocate for multi-disciplinarily of method and field, drawn from architecture, history, anthropology, geography, sociology, museology, and political science.
Social and Environmental Sustainability
We advocate that preservation of tangible and intangible heritage is inextricably connected to the preservation of memories and identities of communities, especially those whose stories have not been told and whose voices have been marginalized from heritage conversation discourse and practice. We acknowledge that the built environment deeply implicated in the climate crisis and that historic preservation offers an opportunity to value the embodied energy in existing structures and promote reuse and recycle at the building and urban scale.
Practices
In addition, in terms of methodological approaches to teaching and learning and in alignment with UNC Charlotte, the CoA+A, and the SoA’s goal the Critical Heritage concentration focuses on:
Local / Global Perspectives
We investigate global challenges and conversations while seeking local ways of advancing solutions relevant to regional contexts and communities. We integrate study abroad to experiences to increase understanding of the complexity of heritage worldwide, including building on existing SoA and CoA+A connections in Italy, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Poland, France, Egypt, and Bosnia-Hercegovina
Community Engagement / Experiential Learning
We incorporate project-based courses rooted in communities and organizations in Charlotte and North Carolina. The two studio lab courses would have real projects for real stakeholders and involve public participation in and presentation of the work. These could be co-taught by faculty from multiple disciplines and could engage an exhibitionary / museum project in one lab and an intervention / reuse project in the other. We include internships with preservation organizations in the region to increase student experience and connections to practices.
PATHS
The program is designed with curricular variations to meet the needs of different prospective students:
- MS in Architecture (Critical Heritage) for recent graduates or working design or planning professionals seeking to augment their skills or add credentials
- MS in Architecture (Critical Heritage) / Masters of Architecture II dual degree for professional design students seeking to add a specialization and broaden their education
- in the future we hope to also offer a MS in Architecture (Critical Heritage) / MA in History (Public History) dual degree for students from a range of related fields interested in launching preservation careers rooted in an interdisciplinary framework.
CURRICULUM 1 - MS in Architecture (Critical Heritage)
This 30-credit program can be completed in 1-year full time or 2-years part time. This non-thesis track is geared for working design or planning professionals seeking to augment their skills or add credentials. An internship is required.
Full Time Option (1-year/30 credits)
Year One Fall (16 hours)
- ARCH 5600: Critical Approaches to Heritage (3 hours)
- ARCH 7211: Studio Lab I: Heritage Project (4 hours)
- HIST 6330: History in the Digital Age (3 hours)
- Elective (3 hours)
- ARCH 6400: Internship (3 hours) - can do during the summer if preferred
Year One Spring (14 hours)
- ARCH 7212: Studio Lab II: Heritage Project (4 hours)
- HIST 6320: Introduction to Historic Preservation (3 hours)
- ARCH 6600: Heritage Colloquium (1 credit)
- Electives (6 hours)
Part-Time Option (2-years/30 credits)
Year One Fall (6 hours)
- ARCH 5600: Critical Approaches to Heritage (3 hours)
- Elective (3 hours)
- HIST 6320: Introduction to Historic Preservation (3 hours)
- ARCH 7212: Studio Lab II: Heritage Project (4 hours)
- ARCH 6400: Internship (3 hours)
- ARCH 7211: Studio Lab I: Heritage Project (4 hours)
- HIST 6330: History in the Digital Age (3 hours)
- Elective (6 hours)
- ARCH 6600: Heritage Colloquium (1 credit)
CURRICULUM 2 - MS in Architecture (Critical Heritage) / MArch II
This 84-credit program can be completed in 2.5-years, including one summer. This track is for professional degree students seeking to add a specialization. It replaces the diploma project with a required independent thesis. An internship is required. Foreign study is encouraged.
Year One Fall (15 hours)
- ARCH 5600: Critical Approaches to Heritage (3 hours)
- ARCH 5203: Architectural History III (3 hours)
- ARCH 5604: Computational Methods (3 hours)
- ARCH 7101: Design Studio Topical (6 hours)
Year One Spring (15 hours)
- HIST 6320: Introduction to Historic Preservation (3 hours)
- ARCH 5605: Computational Practice (3 hours)
- ARCH 7102: Design Studio Topical (6 hours)
- Elective (3 hours)
Year Two Fall (15 hours)
- HIST 6330: History in the Digital Age (3 hours)
- ARCH 5305: Building System Integration (3 hours)
- ARCH 6306: Tech Topic (3 hours)
- ARCH 7103: Integrated Studio (6 hours)
Year Two Spring (16 hours)
- ARCH 7212: Studio Lab II: Heritage Project (4 hours)
- ARCH 7800: Thesis Prep (3 hours)
- ARCH 5206: Professional Practice (3 hours)
- ARCH 6306: Tech Topic (3 hours)
- Elective (3 hours)
Year Two Summer (9 hours from the following)
- ARCH 5000: Study Abroad - 1st Summer Session (3-6 hours)
- ARCH 6400: Internship - 2nd Summer Session (3-9 hours)
Year Three Fall (14 hours)
- ARCH 7211: Studio Lab I: Heritage Project (4 hours)
- ARCH 7900: Thesis (6 hours)
- ARCH 6600: Heritage Studies Colloquium (1 credit)
- Elective (3 hours)