
Anthropology alumna expands public knowledge of underrepresented stories
Sara Artes ’03 oversees the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling cultural and historical exhibitions
Who visits museums? How are collections and archives constructed? What social roles do museums and archives play? Students in this pathway will explore the diverse traditions of collection, curation, research, display, and preservation.
Students in the Museum & Archival Studies Pathway consider the histories, techniques, and challenges common to the diverse traditions of museums and collections, curation, and preservation practices. From small archives to large national collections, difficult dialogues surrounding justice and equity with respect to objects, collections, and accessibility are taking place at greater frequency. The Pathway seeks to promote and support a wide range of voices and to prioritize non-western contexts in decolonizing collections and institution. To this end, courses may also focus on specialized theoretical approaches to address histories of collection, teaching, and display, but also to confront issues of ownership, cultural patrimony, colonialism, and ethics.
Students who choose this pathway might expect to:
Careers associated with this pathway include an extraordinary array of disciplinary perspectives in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. They include, but are not limited to:
Assistant Professor, Art and Art History, Middle Eastern & North African Studies
Assistant Professor of Anthropology; Museum Studies (On leave for Fall 2023)
Associate Professor of Religious Studies; South Asian Studies; East Asian Studies; Co-Liaison to the Museum & Archival Studies Pathway
Lawrence Stanley Chair and Professor of Medieval History; Pre-Law Program (On leave for Spring 2024)
Associate Professor, Art and Art History; Chair of Museum Studies; South Asian Studies
Associate Professor of Archaeology; Sociology and Anthropology; Program Chair for Archaeology
Director and Curator of College of Wooster Art Museum; Co-Liaison to the Museum & Archival Studies Pathway; Adjunct Associate Professor of Museum Studies
Pathways Program Coordinator, Global Engagement Office Administrative Coordinator
Sara Artes ’03 oversees the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling cultural and historical exhibitions
Seth Pevnick, Curator of Greek and Roman Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will present, “Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World at the […]
Information technology and art enthusiast spent summer increasing skill set at top art museum
Students will complete one experience that meets the following description: Substantial/sustained off-campus internship, work experience, or volunteer opportunity, in the area of student’s interests and goals, which will include a formal reflection on quality and quality of engagement. Approved experiential learning opportunities should give students firsthand, guided experience working with digital, physical, written, or visual materials. Such opportunities include:
Reflective exercises at the beginning, middle and end of the pathway
Reflections guide students to articulate meaningful connections between the skills and knowledge they are gaining and the experiences in their coursework, experiential learning opportunities and career goals.
Reflections take place along five points in the pathway:
Students will complete three courses from different departments within the following interest categories. Students are welcome to pursue various courses from multiple Interest Categories, provided that these decisions are made in consultation with a Pathway advisor, and that the student articulates the reasons for these selections in a written reflection in the form of a proposal and rationale as addressed above.
Approved coursework in this interest area provides students with guided opportunities to understand how human cultures, histories, communities, and identities are (and are not) represented in museums. Students completing coursework in this area may also identify legal and ethical issues in ethnographic collections and displays.
*Course has pre-requisite or requires instructor permission to register
These are courses that encourage students to explore the methods, techniques, and reasoning employed to reconstruct and interpret past societies out of material and visual records. Ethical questions should arise for students completing coursework in this area surrounding the religious, social, political, economic, and cultural conditions of representation and discovery.
*Course has pre-requisite or requires instructor permission to register
Coursework in this interest area allows students to engage with histories and methods of curating & preserving written, visual, physical, and digital texts.
*Course has pre-requisite or requires instructor permission to register
Approved courses related to museums of natural history should contribute to students’ applied understandings of evolutionary history and ecology. Students should draw ideas from this coursework on how to incorporate such understandings into the curation, conservation, and education of natural history.
*Course has pre-requisite or requires instructor permission to register
Approved coursework in this interest area should help students imagine how displays of histories, traditions, and cultures are produced, distributed, and received in various forms. Students may be challenged to consider legacies of conquest, colonialism, and other political or economic influences in working with original historical materials.
*Course has pre-requisite or requires instructor permission to register
Students may also consider organizing their own set of courses out of these options, by submitting a proposal to the Museam and Archival Studies Pathway Team.