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Museums shape and at times challenge how we see objects and ourselves in relation to community, culture, and the world. They preserve, display, and interpret an astonishing array of materials of educational value. Museums come in many forms, and are cross-disciplinary. They involve different ways of knowing and doing. The Museum Studies minor enables students to investigate that vibrant world and its various professional paths. Minors and other students will understand how museums developed historically and what thinking informs current exhibition practices. Minors will also gain first-hand experience in one or more areas of museum work, such as curating, education, registration, collections management, conservation, or technology. Optional discipline-specific tracks allow minors and all students to bring what they learn about museums into alignment with their primary academic interest.
Requirements for Minors
A minor concentration in Museum Studies consists of five courses (combining for a total of 16 credits), one applied learning experience in a museum (three or four credits), plus an oral presentation, for a total of 19 or 20 credits. All students must take MS-100 Museum Studies (four credits), MS-200A (two credits) and B Curatorial Practice (two credits), and MS-350 Oral Presentation (zero credits). The applied learning experience (MS-381 or 382) must be an off-campus internship or curatorial experience and should focus on collections, conservation, education, interpretation, and/or research. The experience must be approved by the Museum Studies Coordinating Group. The remaining credits (elective) must come from two of the following: ACCT-140, ANTH-100, ANTH-205, any 100- or 200-level Art History course, ART-371, ART-372, EDUC-100, EDUC-265, EDUC-350W, any 300-level History course, MS-001, MCS-201, MCS-220, MCS-254, MCS-330, MCS-363, MS-250 or another course approved by the Museum Studies Coordinating Group. In the spring semester of their senior year, Museum Studies minors must also give an oral presentation at a Museum Studies session at the Celebration of Student Achievement, thus fulfilling MS-350.
As an option, students may choose to pursue a discipline-specific track in the Museum Studies minor. Each track consists of two courses from a list of relevant courses. Students who choose not to do a track can take elective credits in two separate track areas.
Elective course options for each track are:
- Anthropology: ANTH-100, 205
- Art History: ART-100, 150, 160, 230, 290, 371, 372
- Business and Economics: ACCT-140, MGT-200, MKT-250
- Education: EDUC-100, 265, 350W
- Environment and Sustainability: ENVS-242 or 272; ENVS-332, 338, 340, 360, or 366
- History: Any two History courses in the same area of concentration (U.S. and American, European and Mediterranean, non-Western, or world and comparative), one of which must be at the 300- or 400-level.
- History track for non-History majors: HIST-200W and one, 300-level History course
- Media and Communications Studies: MCS-201, 220, 254, 330, 363