APY 514SEM - Museum Management

This course is designed to provide a foundation in museum management - in both its operations and administrative mechanics and the hierarchies and power structures that shape critical museum discourse. Museums are undergoing tremendous transformations, especially in terms of the use, care, and representation of their collections and in respect to reaching increasingly diverse audiences. This course prepares students to enter careers in museums and cultural heritage organizations, with an emphasis on institutions with an anthropological, STEM, or historical focus. Through lectures, guest speakers, group work, and discussions this course provides principles of museum management and applies them to real museum management case studies. The Marian E. White Museum at the Department of Anthropology will serve as the main case study for the class. The goal of this course is to explore the tensions between the museum¿s traditional operations and obligations versus the needs to adjust these principles so that museums may become equitable platforms for the exchange of knowledge.

Credits: 3