MA in Cultural Heritage Management
The challenges of the 21st century and the expansion of heritage tourism worldwide have increased the need for forward-thinking management and preservation strategies. With a focus on emergent technology and its impact on conservation, preservation, and engagement, together with integrated approaches to management, and community and stakeholder partnerships, Johns Hopkins University offers an innovative, online graduate degree in Cultural Heritage Management. This degree program immerses students in a broad context of cultural heritage issues, including social, environmental, and economic trends. It gives them the qualifications to assume leadership and management roles in the cultural heritage sector.
Our cultural heritage management program embraces a fully inclusive definition of heritage. It’s more than local, regional, and national sites, monuments, and artifacts; it’s also full landscapes, environments, and even the intangible. And we explore it all in a global context.
We combine this holistic approach with pragmatic skills in digital and geospatial documentation, risk management, and project management. Our program immerses students in cultural heritage policies and provides them with the graduate qualifications to meet 36 CFR Part 61 and Register of Professional Archaeologists standards and assume leadership and management roles in the heritage and CRM sectors.
Our program is built around several guiding principles:
- We incorporate an inclusive definition of heritage beyond sites, monuments, and artifacts, to include full landscapes, environments, and intangible heritage.
- We recognize grassroots efforts and community buy-in as critical to successful management strategies.
- We support an integrated approach to management and a wide understanding of its ties to sustainability, development, and community.
- We take full advantage of our online medium by focusing on emergent technologies related to the field and their impact on preservation, engagement, documentation, and asset management.
- In addition to a sustained focus on digital technologies, the program is framed through a global lens, situating the local, regional, and national within a global context.
We welcome students from around the world interested in cultural heritage management. The interdisciplinary nature and international focus and concern of cultural heritage are supported well in the online format, where domestic and international students can learn together.
The MA in Cultural Heritage Management faculty is made up of highly regarded experts in the heritage field and academia from diverse geographic locations. They are passionate about training the next generation of heritage leaders and professionals and are enthusiastic about the online course format.
Admissions Criteria for All Advanced Academic Programs
PROGRAM-SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree in study areas relevant to the curriculum (anthropology, archaeology, architecture, preservation, art history, conservation, environmental sciences, geography, cultural management or tourism, public history, or a related field). Applicants must also submit:
- Statement of Purpose Please provide a statement, up to one page in length, describing your personal background and/or a part of your life experience that has shaped you or your goals. Feel free to elaborate on personal challenges and opportunities that have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree at Johns Hopkins.
- Two Letters of Recommendation
- Resume
Program Requirements
Students in the MA in Cultural Heritage Management program must complete a total of 10 courses:
- Three required core courses
- Three customizable core courses
- Four elective courses
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Core Courses - Required: | 9 | |
| Studies in World Heritage | ||
| Cultural Heritage Management/Leadership | ||
| Two-Week Onsite Cultural Heritage Management Seminar 1 | ||
| Core Courses - Customizable: | 9 | |
| Select three of the following: 2 | ||
| Reading the Landscape: Cultural Heritage at Scale | ||
| The Protection of Global Cultural Heritage: Laws, Policies, Politics, and Advocacy | ||
| Issues in Intangible Cultural Heritage | ||
| Heritage Interpretation | ||
| Engaging Communities in Heritage | ||
| Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age | ||
| Electives | 12 | |
| Select four of the following: | ||
| Research/Capstone in Heritage Studies | ||
| Culture as Catalyst for Sustainable Development | ||
| Cultural Heritage Risk Management and Security | ||
| Public Monuments and Collective Memory | ||
| Heritage Tourism | ||
| Understanding NAGPRA, Repatriation Laws and Ethical Practice | ||
| Reality Capture: Heritage Documentation for Analysis, Conservation, and Outreach | ||
| Foundations of Digital Curation | ||
| Internship | ||
| Total Credits | 30 | |
- 1
Students unable to participate in the onsite seminar must register for the hybrid course AS.465.709.81 Virtual Seminar.
- 2
Any customizable core courses beyond the three required will count toward your elective requirements.
Learning Outcomes
The curriculum of the Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage Management program prepares graduates to:
- Analyze changes in the heritage field through an assessment of their theoretical and practical impacts.
- Build leadership capacities that contribute to the growth, development, and sustainability of the heritage field.
- Examine the role of new methods and techniques (including digital technology) in the field of heritage.
- Articulate the roles of policy and advocacy in the broader heritage field.
- Evaluate the impact of heritage designation at various scales from the local to the global.
- Explore the roles of multiple constituencies in heritage management.
- Create strategies for heritage management.
- Integrate academic knowledge with applied experience unique to the field of heritage.