Aarhus University

MA in Sustainable Heritage Management

The MA program in sustainable heritage management (SHM) at Aarhus University provides you with the knowledge and competencies needed to meet the multiple challenges of contemporary heritage policy, management, and research.

Working with cultural and natural heritage means being conscious of, and taking responsibility for, the links between humans, our environment, and what remains from the past. The Sustainable Management program equips you, through engaging with theory and best practice, with the skills necessary to work in the exciting, expanding, and increasingly complex field of heritage. You will be trained in a uniquely interdisciplinary environment to understand, designate, assess, retain, and sustain heritage and to develop, revise, and innovate the future shapes of the sector.

In your second year of the Sustainable Management program, you have the option to apply and develop your knowledge and skills in practice through an internship; so far our students have gained experience in areas as diverse as archives, museums, cultural agencies, historical reenactment, television, and cultural institutes interning around the world including in Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, the UK, the Caribbean, South Korea, and Bali. In the final semester, you will specialize, with an appropriate supervisor, to complete a substantial piece of research on an area of heritage that most interests you.

Heritage as a Resource

The Sustainable Heritage Management program qualifies you to analyze and ethically respond to the demands of heritage work, providing not only a sophisticated intellectual framework but also a practice-based set of skills. You will learn to tackle the future challenges of heritage management on local and global scales. The questions and challenges are manifold:

• What is heritage and what is not
• How do we register, prioritize, and protect heritage for future generations
• How can civil societies engage responsibly in the management of heritage
• How do we deal with contested and contrasting claims to heritage and sites
• How do we manage heritage projects so they are appropriate in form and scale and can be completed in a timely fashion
• How do we co-create and communicate heritage in sustainable ways, creating long-lasting value for cultural institutions, creative industries, societies, and individuals

A Highly Interdisciplinary Field

Heritage studies and heritage management is a highly interdisciplinary field, involving methodologies and approaches from various disciplines. The Sustainable Heritage Management program at Aarhus University is anchored in an interdisciplinary research environment that includes engaging with scholars who work in archaeology, anthropology, geography, intellectual history, aesthetics, museology, cultural studies, and digital design.

Thus, during your studies, you will not only work with material forms of cultural heritage, but also with textual data, intangible culture, and, not least, people and their various perceptions of heritage. The program revolves around and intersects with the revamped Moesgaard Museum (situated south of Aarhus), affording unique collaborative opportunities for students and staff in this university-museum environment.