Short course
Managing Loss in the Historic Environment: Ecocultural Approaches
Course status:
Closed to new applications
Location:
Online or Rewley House 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA
Dates:
09/12/2025 - 09/12/2025
Study format:
Online - live
Fees:
£160.00 – £330.00
Learn about how heritage practice is evolving to respond creatively to climate and other pressures.
This transdisciplinary 1-day course provides training and knowledge exchange for those involved in managing complex change (including the potential for substantial harm or loss) in the historic environment. It is aimed at a cross-sector audience, including historic and natural environment practitioners, cultural resource consultants, regulatory and local planning authorities, landscape architects, curators, and ecological surveyors. In-person and online participation is possible.
We will review environmental drivers for change to heritage assets and landscapes in UK and international contexts and discuss a range of established options for managing anticipated impacts. We will then explore emerging approaches such as adaptive release, which frame the management of change as an ecocultural process with potential co-benefits for natural and cultural heritage. Participants will gain awareness of relevant policy developments and develop confidence in applying new approaches and navigating context-specific challenges.
Detailed case studies will ground exploration of key themes, leading participants in thinking about how to define, accept and learn from (partial or total) loss in the historic environment, and how to assess the risks and rewards associated with adaptive, integrated approaches. The programme includes contributions from National Trust and Historic Environment Scotland staff directly involved in developing policy and practice to address the challenges explored in the course. In the afternoon, those attending in person will be invited to share cases from their own work in a participatory workshop applying the approaches introduced in the morning session.
On the day after this course (10 December), there is a course on Planning tools for managing climate-vulnerable heritage assets. It will detail a relevant approach to address the topics covered in this course, which is being developed by Historic England. If you book on to this course you will be eligible for a 15% discount on the other. Please email cwhe@conted.ox.ac.uk for further details, and please email res-ctr@conted.ox.ac.uk to find out about accommodation.
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9:00am- Registration
9:30am- Welcome and Introductions
9:45am- Concepts and Contexts: What is loss?
10:00am- Thresholds and Tipping Points: When is Loss?
10:15am- Transition and Transformation: Working with Loss
10:45am- Short break
11:00am- From Guidance to Groundwork (Ingrid Samuel, National Trust)
11:45am- Title TBC (David Mitchell, Historic Environment Scotland)
12:30pm- Recap and Resources
(online course ends)
1:00pm- Lunch
2:00pm- Release Café Participatory Workshop
3:15pm- Coffee/tea
3:45pm- Risks and Rewards: Assessing Loss
4:30pm- Final Discussion and Questions
4:45pm- Course Concludes
Digital Certification
Digital badge
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be issued an official digital badge from the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford. After the course, you will receive an email with a link and instructions on how to download your digital badge. You will be able to add your badge to your email signature and share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Caitlin De Silvey – Course Director
Caitlin DeSilvey is Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall campus. Her research into the cultural significance of material and ecological change has involved extensive collaboration with archaeologists, conservation architects, ecologists, heritage practitioners and others, and has informed new approaches in heritage practice, focused on accommodating process rather than securing preservation. Her monograph, Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving (UMP 2017), received the 2018 Historic Preservation Book Prize. From 2020-2022 she led the Landscape Futures and the Challenge of Change project in collaboration with the National Trust, Historic England and Natural England. Her advisory roles include membership of the National Trust Historic Environment Advisory Group and the Bord Ertach Kernow Change Working Group
Dr Ingrid Samuel – Guest Speaker
Dr Ingrid Samuel OBE is Placemaking and Heritage Director for the National Trust, and responsible for strategic leadership, policy and practice across the Trust’s heritage and landscape assets. She is also strategic lead for planning and development, including major infrastructure proposals impacting the organisation, and for the NT’s climate adaptation programme. In each of these areas Ingrid’s focus is on balancing conservation and care with an effective and appropriate approach to evolution and change. She leads nationally for research across this range of responsibilities. A former senior civil servant, Ingrid was Head of Heritage and Architecture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport before the NT. She has a doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| In-person tuition | £330.00 |
| Online tuition: Half day only | £160.00 |
| Hot Lunch | £21.25 |
Module code: O25P293PAR