Heritage Institutions, Resistance, and Praxis

Abstract

Heritage institutions traditionally function as subtle hegemonic devices for the production and public representation of knowledge, meaning, and belonging. This article looks at the role of public intellectuals called heritage interpreters who work at heritage institutions as agents of knowledge production. The concept of the public sphere is considered in relation to Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony, the intellectual, and praxis to offer an expanded view of communicative production at heritage institutions. The article explores the interpreter’s role resisting ideological hegemony and commodification, and in creating spaces and conversations for alternative imaginings of and struggle toward public knowledge and radical pedagogy.