Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2026 - ARCH 286 D100

Cultural Heritage Management (3)

Class Number: 3564

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jun 29 – Aug 10, 2026: Tue, Thu, 4:30–7:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    30 units including one of ARCH 100, ARCH 101, ARCH 201, EVSC 100, GEOG 100, or REM 100.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines cultural heritage management as the universal process by which people use places, objects and traditions from the past to educate, entertain, profit, promote change, maintain status quo, create identities, and build communities and nations. The course presents archaeology as one aspect of cultural heritage management and as an activity governed by national laws and international conventions for protecting and making appropriate use of heritage. Using case studies from Canada and abroad, the course explores stewardship as a fundamental professional ethic in archaeology and other fields engaged in studying, applying, and safeguarding personal, familial, communal, national, and transnational heritage. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

An examination of cultural heritage management as the universal process by which people deploy cultural heritage—meaning places, objects, and traditions originating in the past and valued in the present—to promote change, maintaining status quo, create identities, and build family, community, and national solidarity. The course presents archaeology as one aspect of and tool for cultural heritage management and as an activity governed by customary institutions as well as national laws and international conventions for protecting and making appropriate use of heritage. Individual and groupwork exercises are intended to highlight the prevalence of heritage and the ways it is cherished, used, and defended, often at considerable cost, by individuals (especially individual course participants) and communities. We survey the policies—conventions, statutes, regulations, court decisions, etc.—that mandate and guide authorized CHM, giving particular attention to how policies affect CHM practice in Canada, the United States, and Indigenous contexts. 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Experience and describe your personal relationship with cultural heritage and how you make decisions about what to adopt (or not).
  • Analyze and explain how humans enlist Authorized and Alternative Heritage Discourse to assert and negotiate values, meanings, and identities at social and spatial scales ranging from intimate, personal, and local to universal and global.
  • Understand and describe archaeology as an institutionalized professional practice and as part of humanity’s quest to create meaning and utility out of shared legacies of objects and places.
  • Develop and deploy a campaign to manage heritage in pursuit of a collectively desired future.
  • Explore and explain how rapidly diversifying demands for heritage identification, interpretation, and management is creating professional opportunities in Canada and globally.

Grading

  • Student Preparation and Participation 15%
  • Quizzes (about 8) 25%
  • Individual Assignments (about 4) 30%
  • Group Assignments (about 3) 30%

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who may need class or exam accommodations, including in the context of remote learning, are advised to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112) as soon as possible to ensure that they are eligible and that approved accommodations and services are implemented in a timely fashion.

Deferred grades will be given only on the basis of authenticated medical disability.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.