Cultural & Historic Preservation (CHP)

This course is an introduction to historic preservation as it is practiced in the United States. Some people think historic preservation is all about keeping things the way they are (or were), but this is a practical impossibility and it is much more accurate to think of historic preservation as "the management of change."

In this course, students gain initial field experience in historic preservation. The emphasis is on the investigation, preliminary documentation, and interpretation of buildings, sites, and objects. Students become familiar with the terminology used in preservation and develop research and writing skills through a series of projects in and around Newport.

Archaeology is a sub-discipline of anthropology that deals explicitly with the past through the study of material remains. While archaeologists engage many of the same issues as other anthropologists (e.g., social inequality, gender relations, colonialism), they must approach these issues from alternative perspectives using different research methods. In this course, students will consider how archaeologists formulate research questions; find, excavate, and date sites; collect, quantify, and analyze artifacts; and interpret data in order to create stories about life in the past.

This course introduces the student to the history of Western Architecture, beginning with the ziggurats and pyramids of the ancient Near East and Egypt and continuing into the 21st century. Students will learn about structural principles common to all buildings, as well as issues of style and the cultural meaning of buildings.

This course provides an introduction to North American Indian societies. The class takes an anthropological approach that explores diversity in the cultural practices and material culture of Native American groups across the continent. Course topics will include adaptation to the environment, belief systems, gender roles, architecture and European colonialism. Students in the course will also engage with modern issues facing Native American communities such as heritage preservation and environmental, economic and social justice.

In this course, students engage with the archaeology of cultures across the globe. The course surveys the prehistory of Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas beginning with the evolution of humans and then covering major transitions in world prehistory including the origins of agriculture and the rise of city states.

Public History is the interpretation of the past for popular audiences in the non-academic settings. This course introduces students to the field of public history, including the subfields of museum studies, archival studies, oral history, historic site interpretation and historic preservation. Expert guest speakers, field trips and case studies expose students to a variety of professional career options.

This internship allows CHP students to work in offices and institutions that deal with cultural and historic preservation under the direction of practitioners.

This internship allows CHP students to work in offices and institutions that deal with the archaeological aspects of cultural resource management under the direction of practitioners.

This course begins with the premise that the greatest human artifact is the city. It examines the characteristic elements of urban form as they have developed over time and in different places, explaining their presence and meaning. Not a course in urban history, this is, rather, a study of the history of urbanism, dealing with the physical forms of the urban environment, and how those forms relate to the natural world around cities, primarily in Europe and the New World.

Historic sites come in a wide variety of forms from buildings to battlefields to archaeological sites. While diverse, these sites share a powerful basis of importance - they are physical locations that link the past to the present. In this class, students are introduced to the preservation laws that guide the practice of cultural resource management and the fundamental concepts and practices that are employed to protect and manage historic sites in the United States. This class will focus on protective legislation, management challenges, public outreach, and interpretation.

This course examines the historical development of the American built environment, beginning with Native American settlement patterns and continuing to present-day phenomena of sprawl and New Urbanism. Students explore how landscape and buildings have developed in response to broader changes in American culture.

This course examines the rise of Modernism in architectural design beginning from the end of the 19th until its displacement in the 1970's. It also traces Anti-Modern, Postmodern and contemporary practice in the architectural world.

In this class, students will be introduced to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) - a powerful set of methods for visualizing and analyzing information using computer-generated maps. Through hands-on projects, students will acquire a sound working knowledge of GIS software and its applications. The skills learned in this class will be useful in several fields including historic preservation, environmental studies, civic planning, social sciences, and business.

In this course, students are introduced to theories of landscape history, with a particular focus on New England. Techniques of researching, documenting, and interpreting landscapes are critical components of the course. The challenges of preserving landscapes in the face of development and sprawl are also important aspects of the class.

This course will trace architectural developments in Newport, from the colonial settlement at the beginning of the seventeenth century to the present. Through it, you will become familiar North American architecture, interpretations of continuity and change in architectural form and structure, and the geographic, social, economic, political, and technological forces that together influenced buildings and the practices of creating and inhabiting them. Examples will come from vernacular, professional and monumental contexts so that students become familiar with various design processes and types of architecture. The course will survey the features of buildings constructed in different times and consider their historical and social contexts. The course will also involve time outside of the classroom on field trips.

This course examines the archaeology of the Northeastern United States from its initial colonization by Paleoindian people through the early historic period (15,000 BCE-1950 CE). The course will survey important sites, artifact types, and ethnohistoric traditions of contemporary indigenous communities. Students will gain an understanding of historic preservation practices and issues in the region.

A summer program which offers a field school in archaeology. Students participate in all aspects of the archaeological process beginning with developing a research design, continuing with survey, excavation, documentation and concluding with cataloging and analysis of artifacts.

This course introduces students to the processes involved in studying artifacts in the post-excavation phase of archaeological investigation. Topics covered include preliminary curation techniques, stratigraphic sequencing, feature analysis, and the completion of written archaeological reports. The notion of ethics and responsibilities underlying archaeological investigation is emphasized. This is a laboratory course.

A summer program which offers a five-week field school in architectural documentation. Students participate in all aspects of the architectural process, including archival research and physical documentation of historic buildings.

This course is the first half of the CHP capstone sequence, to be taken ideally in a student's senior year. The seminar will focus on a selected topic with the students reading and discussing background material. Students will research and present, in both oral and written form, a topic associated with the subject of the seminar. Open to CHP majors with junior or senior academic standing.

Special topics are offered according to student interest and availability of program resources.

Students work to mount an exhibition in Salve's Dorrance Hamilton Gallery (or online in a virtual exhibition space) in this experiential, hands-on course that introduces aspects of museum and gallery work. This course is co-taught by an art historian and the gallery director.

The senior seminar is oriented toward both theory and method. Through archival research, fieldwork, and coordination with local preservation organizations, students complete a senior thesis as the final requirement for the CHP major.

A student may work independently with a faculty member in an area not covered by a regularly scheduled course offering. Senior academic standing only.