Culture, Heritage and Criminology

Culture, heritage and criminology is a combination that brings together the study of how societies remember and represent their past with the critical analysis of crime, harm and the systems through which justice is pursued. Cultural and heritage studies examines how museums, monuments, archives, traditions and narratives construct collective identity and memory, whose stories are told and whose are suppressed, and how heritage sites and practices function economically and politically. Criminology asks parallel questions about how societies define deviance, how they respond to wrongdoing, and what the criminal justice system actually achieves.

At the University of the Highlands and Islands, this four-year full-time programme gives you the opportunity to explore these disciplines in a part of the UK with a particularly rich and contested heritage, where questions about the Highland Clearances, Gaelic culture, landscape, land ownership and identity remain live and consequential. The programme combines theoretical study with engagement with local and national cultural institutions and debates, giving your learning a distinctive grounding in place.

You will develop skills in archival and source research, cultural analysis, criminological theory, policy evaluation and clear academic writing. Both disciplines develop your capacity to read complex situations critically, to consider multiple perspectives and to engage with ethical questions about representation, justice and memory.

Graduates go on to careers in heritage management, museums and galleries, archives, cultural tourism, community arts, criminal justice, probation, social care, youth work, policy research and education. The combination of cultural and criminological training is valued in organisations that work at the intersection of community development, justice and heritage, including local authorities, charities, arts organisations and government agencies. Some go on to postgraduate study in heritage studies, criminology, history or related fields.