Explore the power of heritage in a global context and consider its relationship to major debates around sustainability, decolonisation, conflict, and human rights.

Heritage is a broad field of study that addresses the ways in which societies preserve and actively use the things they have inherited from past generations. Our MA in Global Heritage provides you with a thorough and critical understanding of the role of heritage in the contemporary world, paying particular attention to transnational developments and the impact of globalisation on the sector. While exploring the specificities of national, regional, and local contexts, you will learn how to relate these contexts to globally important heritage debates, for example around sustainability, decolonisation, the impact of conflict and climate change on heritage, and the relationship between heritage and human rights.

The programme provides you with opportunities to address these and other issues in a comparative, international context. If you already have experience of working in the heritage sector, this programme will allow you to broaden your frame of theoretical and geographical reference. If you have no previous experience of the heritage sector, this programme will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to heritage as a matter of policy and practice.

The programme works with a broad conception of heritage, focusing not only on tangible culture (e.g., historic sites, buildings, monuments, museums, and artefacts), but also on intangible cultural heritage (e.g., traditional skills and crafts, creative and social practices, rituals and festivals). You will engage in key heritage debates around the role of museums, visual heritage, the role of heritage in communities, monuments and commemoration, cultural landscapes, and minority languages, among other issues. The programme draws on the rich heritage resources of Wales to provide you with insights into the impact of the sector.

Led by the School of Modern Languages, the programme draws on the expertise of staff across the across the arts, humanities, and social sciences disciplines at Cardiff University, which benefits from a wealth of research and teaching experience in the field of heritage. You will be taught by researchers active in the field of heritage and benefit from insights into their ongoing research projects.