Heritage questing with Virginia Woolf: UCL Institute of Archaeology’s ‘spirit of place’ and new pedagogies of the pandemic

Beverley Butler,David Francis,Ellen Pavey

doi:10.14324/111.444.ai.2021.07

Abstract

This article charts a particular journey of discovery – that of ‘heritage questing with Virginia Woolf’. We explore how, against the backdrop of COVID-19, the Master’s in Cultural Heritage Studies (MACHS) adopted and adapted Virginia Woolf as an efficacious ‘ancestor figure’ around which staff and students were able to grasp, engage with, articulate and try to understand the extraordinary experiences and challenges faced throughout the academic year. Woolf emerged as the shared conduit and portal by which MACHS in ‘diaspora’ could imaginatively connect with, collectively tap into and add new layers to the Institute of Archaeology (IoA)’s ‘spirit of place’ in Bloomsbury. In what follows, our article draws on a co-ethnography of these experiences which, in turn, we juxtapose alongside Virginia Woolf’s own literary insights. Writ large, our journey sees us critically reflect upon attempts to navigate the unknown currents and trajectories of living, teaching and learning in times of coronavirus within which Woolf emerged as a lighthouse of sorts. Writ larger still, we see our quest as a means to grasp the ‘new pedagogies of the pandemic’ that materialised as an outcome of the impacts and experiences of coronavirus. Ultimately these were also seized upon as a means of taking forward the shared promise of fulfilment, in terms of shaping such quests into liveable presents and better futures as well as adding new layers to the IoA’s stratigraphy.

Highlights

The MA in Cultural Heritage Studies (MACHS) at the Institute of Archaeology (IoA) UCL is structured around the concept of a shared ‘heritage quest’ – we take students on an intellectual journey that promises to transform them into heritage critics
The increasingly shared and extended nature of such pedagogies came further into view, as the phenomenon of ‘home schooling’ required parents, carers and students to adopt and adapt to new situations and to transformed roles. It was in this context too that the figure of Virginia Woolf emerged as central to our reworked MACHS ‘heritage quest’ and to the shaping of our extended ‘new pedagogies’
This concern extended to the student group as a whole, as the phased lockdown restrictions that unfolded as the academic year unfolded saw us increasingly confined to our homes. It was in this context of profound uncertainly that the figure of Virginia Woolf, the modernist writer, dubbed ‘the high-priestess of Bloomsbury’, came to provide a privileged loci and conduit by which to engage with, articulate and understand the extraordinary experiences and challenges faced by students throughout the academic year. This particular journey of discovery and experience of ‘heritage questing with Virginia Woolf’ began before the academic year proper – at the point when, in anticipation of the new MACHS student cohort in September 2020, we began making our introductions with an initial sharing of a ‘mystery object’ with students – a small bust of Virginia Woolf (Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

This particular journey of discovery and experience of ‘heritage questing with Virginia Woolf’ began before the academic year proper – at the point when, in anticipation of the new MACHS student cohort in September 2020, we began making our introductions with an initial sharing of a ‘mystery object’ with students – a small bust of Virginia Woolf (Figure 1).1 the object, when circulated in digital image form to all students, proved enigmatic. In March 1924 she returned to live in Bloomsbury at 52 Tavistock Square, after a decade living in exile in Richmond due to the stress brought on by the First World War. What followed was a period of intense, creative activity during which she wrote some of her greatest works, including the novels Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando (2018) and the seminal essays ‘Street haunting’ and ‘A Room of One’s Own’.

Results

Conclusion