2020/08/12 by Jeremy C. Wells · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation #Museums and Cultural Heritage #Conservation Techniques and Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/13527258.2020.1799059
openalex publication_date 2020/08/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
This paper seeks to understand the relationship, in historic preservation, between equity/social justice and the field’s intra-disciplinary scholarship by using a critical heritage studies lens. Intra-disciplinary scholarship is defined as the scholarly literature produced by the 58 tenured and tenure-track faculty associated with historic preservation degree programmes in the United States through the end of 2018. A content analysis of this literature shows a general lack of engagement by authors on issues related to the public’s needs, including topics related to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. A citation analysis of this literature reveals meagre faculty productivity and low impact for intra-disciplinary preservation scholarship. In order for the field to sustain itself, it needs to reconsider its anti-intellectual tendencies, increase its socially relevant scholarly publications, and embrace more critical, people-centred approaches.