Dr. Grant Parker is a professor of African studies and classics at Stanford University and the interim director of the Stanford Global Studies Division. In this video, Dr. Parker covers the important concept of heritage and the stakes related to defining heritage around the world. He outlines the many frictions around determining heritage before providing examples of some of the larger debates related to the topic. Dr. Parker then explains how South Africa has modified its sense of heritage since the end of apartheid and ends by reflecting on the importance of heritage in enabling societies and communities to engage with their past and pass on their cultural property to future generations.
A free classroom-friendly discussion guide for this video is available for download below. The discussion guide contains a complete transcript of the video and is appropriate for advanced secondary students and university students. In this discussion guide, students take notes on the video and then debate the most prominent controversy around repatriation, the case of the Elgin Marbles. They then research examples of heritage and end by looking at something in their local community to preserve as heritage.
The video lecture and guide were made possible through the support of U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center funding (to Stanford’s Center for Global Studies) under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.