620334 | Winter semester 2026/27
Module: 14459, 13574

In this seminar, we will explore why people travel short and long distances to visit museums and engage with heritage, and consider
how tourism and heritage are mutually constitutive. We will examine how visitors have become central to cultural management, driven by the conviction that „people matter“ (Smith 2021, 20), and how this shapes the critical study of heritage. Throughout the seminar, we will explore how qualitative methods and ethnography can bring us closer to understanding how and why people visit heritage sites. The focus of the seminar lies in understanding the practices visitors undertake in the process of making heritage. Students will approach this both by reading and discussing key literature and through individual field research at a heritage site near their current place of residence.