European Industrial Heritage as Cultural Heritage: A Case Study

What is the role of the arts in the conservation of Europe’s industrial heritage? This interdisciplinary project will use a case study approach to take up the question of how Europe’s common but highly regionalized industrial heritage is being transformed into cultural heritage, seeking to assess the value of the production and preservation of cultural heritage as a way of caring for the future and engaging with/promoting cultural tourism. Candidates will be encouraged to develop their own case studies in consultation with the supervisory team. Case studies may be comparative or single-site, and projects that focus at least in part on French or German-speaking parts of Europe are particularly welcome. Located at the University of Aberdeen, case studies may also draw upon ways in which Aberdeen’s industrial heritage are being reimagined as cultural heritage, particularly in the light of the City of Aberdeen’s bid to become European City of Culture in 2017. This will be to explore the transformation of the city’s maritime heritage, including the development of the North Sea as a site of oil and gas exploration since the 1970s. The University holds significant resources for such a study, including the Lives in the Oil Industry Oral History Archive and the Capturing the Energy initiative. Candidates should have an undergraduate degree at 2.1 or above in relevant field, and potentially hold a completed Masters degree in a cognate field.