Community engagement is now a mainstay of the public programs of heritage institutions worldwide. A variety of methods and good practices have been developed to successfully engage the bewildering variety of communities and publics that such institutions address. Still, the uncritical application of “toolkits” for effective engagement is perhaps not the ethically appropriate way to incorporate cultural difference in the field. In this online program, we aim to develop a different approach to community engagement, that is based on social (and art) research with community-led initiatives. Research-led practice can lead to collaborative design and collaborative actions that are better suited to the cultural and social particularities of each milieu and each specific group or community and its relation to others. This course draws from our long experience with community engagement through heritage and will discuss several examples from our own and other work.

During the course, participants will familiarize themselves with the context of community engagement through heritage, will discuss methodologies based on ethnography and oral history and will engage in practical exercises.

The duration of the online course is three days and enough time to complete assignments in between online meetings.