Fall 2022
Introduction to Museum Studies
Katherine Burton Jones MA, Director, Museum Studies, Harvard Extension School
All museums share responsibility for preserving and interpreting our cultural and natural heritage for the benefit of the public and society. However, museums are more than the collections they house and the exhibits and programs they present. Each museum is a complex network of individuals whose common goal is to create knowledge and to share information and experiences with others. This course provides a broad introduction to the museum world. Students gain an understanding of the museum and the challenges and responsibilities that museums and their staff members encounter. After discussing what a museum is, the various types of museums, and their roles in the community, we introduce current and emerging issues in museums in a number of areas including governance, management of collections, fundraising, and museum jobs and responsibilities.
Fall 2022
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Research in Museum Studies
Cynthia A. Fowler PhD, Professor of Art, Emmanuel College
In this proseminar, students develop the skills necessary to engage in graduate-level research in the field of museum studies. Students read classic scholarly texts in museum studies and complete short assignments designed to hone their academic writing skills including critical reading, textual analysis, and argument development. Students also write a 10-page research essay that reflects a particular area of interest within the field of museum studies. Throughout the semester we consider the theory that informs museum practice. In particular, we examine how museums can powerfully mediate encounters with the collective past and reflect the politics of race, class, and gender as well as individual, communal, and national identities. Because skills learned in this course are useful in subsequent courses, it is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree (or the second, if they are completing the expository writing prerequisite). While not designed to be a capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the capstone.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. MUSE E-100 and EXPO E-42a recommended.
Fall 2022
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Research in Museum Studies
Jeffrey Robert Wilson PhD, Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
In this proseminar, students develop the skills necessary to engage in graduate-level research in the field of museum studies. Students read classic scholarly texts in museum studies and complete short assignments designed to hone their academic writing skills including critical reading, textual analysis, and argument development. Students also write a 10-page research essay that reflects a particular area of interest within the field of museum studies. Throughout the semester we consider the theory that informs museum practice. In particular, we examine how museums can powerfully mediate encounters with the collective past and reflect the politics of race, class, and gender as well as individual, communal, and national identities. Because skills learned in this course are useful in subsequent courses, it is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree (or the second, if they are completing the expository writing prerequisite). While not designed to be a capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the capstone.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. MUSE E-100 and EXPO E-42a recommended.
Spring 2023
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Research in Museum Studies
Jeffrey Robert Wilson PhD, Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
In this proseminar, students develop the skills necessary to engage in graduate-level research in the field of museum studies. Students read classic scholarly texts in museum studies and complete short assignments designed to hone their academic writing skills including critical reading, textual analysis, and argument development. Students also write a 10-page research essay that reflects a particular area of interest within the field of museum studies. Throughout the semester we consider the theory that informs museum practice. In particular, we examine how museums can powerfully mediate encounters with the collective past and reflect the politics of race, class, and gender as well as individual, communal, and national identities. Because skills learned in this course are useful in subsequent courses, it is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree (or the second, if they are completing the expository writing prerequisite). While not designed to be a capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the capstone.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. MUSE E-100 and EXPO E-42a recommended.
Spring 2023
Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Research in Museum Studies
Eleanor M. Hight PhD, Professor of Art History and Humanities, Emerita, University of New Hampshire
In this proseminar, students develop the skills necessary to engage in graduate-level research in the field of museum studies. Students read classic scholarly texts in museum studies and complete short assignments designed to hone their academic writing skills including critical reading, textual analysis, and argument development. Students also write a 10-page research essay that reflects a particular area of interest within the field of museum studies. Throughout the semester we consider the theory that informs museum practice. In particular, we examine how museums can powerfully mediate encounters with the collective past and reflect the politics of race, class, and gender as well as individual, communal, and national identities. Because skills learned in this course are useful in subsequent courses, it is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree (or the second, if they are completing the expository writing prerequisite). While not designed to be a capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the capstone.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. MUSE E-100 and EXPO E-42a recommended.
Spring 2023
The Business of Museums
Lawrence Scott Motz MBA, Consultant
Museums, in addition to being repositories for scholarly, educational, and cultural stewardship functions, are businesses, and the astute museum professional benefits from understanding how they operate and how they are structured. This course teaches the basic business of museums, large and small, and provides instruction so that museum professionals can operate in the most efficient manner possible. The course is designed to be enlightening to current or prospective staff in all functional areas within a museum, as every department contributes to operations either directly or indirectly. Though there are discussions that introduce basic financial concepts, this is not a finance course. Rather, this course provides history, theory, and practical management considerations for museums operating in today's environment.
Spring 2023
Exhibit Design through Narrative
Michael Howard Maler ALM, Regional Site Manager, Metro Boston, Historic New England - Cesar Zapata MPA, Founder and Designer, Zapata Design Studio
Students collaborate in groups through a lecture-workshop format, exploring exhibit design history, theory, and practice in how it relates to visitor experience and engagement, culminating in the development of an exhibition design proposal and 3-D scaled model of a narrative-style exhibition. The course introduces practices from multiples disciplines that allows students to understand their role as exhibit designers working with other sectors of the museum fields including architecture, design, fabrication, and new media.
Fall 2022
Museum Exhibition Content Development
Shelley N. Monaghan CMS, Consultant
All exhibitions start with a key concept that informs all decisions. This course explores the issues and processes involved in the development of that concept, and the planning of exhibition content in a variety of museum settings. Topics include the development of exhibition themes and educational goals, visitor engagement, intellectual and physical accessibility, universal design, working with designers, and exhibit evaluation methods. The course encourages students to acquire creative communication and problem-solving skills.
Fall 2022
Collections Management: Issues and Solutions
Sara M. Frankel MA, Collections Manager for the David P. Wheatland Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
The course explores the main issues encountered during museum collection management activities. These activities not only affect collections care, but also curation, research, exhibits, and educational projects. Specific challenges and solutions are examined through case studies and analysis of different scenarios. Topics addressed include acquisitions, documentation, digitizing, storage, disaster planning, ethics, and museum-wide strategies for successful collection management.
January 2023
Museum Collections Care
David K. DeBono Schafer MA, Director of Collections Technologies, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
This intensive January session course offers a hands-on training experience in collections care, documentation, and processing at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Students work directly with collections management, curatorial, and archives staff members on specific collections-based projects.
Spring 2023
Informal Learning: Theories and Approaches
Christina Smiraglia EdD, Learning Researcher, Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education - Lynn Baum MEd, Principal, Turtle Peak Consulting
This course examines selected learning theories that have shaped and are shaping the development of educational offerings like programs and exhibitions in museums and similar informal learning environments. We explore a variety of ways that learning happens in these institutions, focusing on the visitors themselves. Students consider informal learning from the lenses of both educator and learner, experiencing and reflecting on educational approaches firsthand before then analyzing and suggesting improvements to an existing educational offering (virtual or onsite) based on the discussed learning theories and approaches.
Prerequisites: MUSE E-100 or equivalent museum experience.
Fall 2022
Museum Evaluation: Audience Data Analysis and Reporting
Christina Smiraglia EdD, Learning Researcher, Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education - Lynn Baum MEd, Principal, Turtle Peak Consulting
Research and evaluation are critical for museums and similar institutions. In this time of data-driven decisions and public accountability, it is especially important to authentically collaborate with communities and stakeholders, which we explore throughout the course. The course offers a general overview of the research process, focusing on data analysis and reporting. Museum professionals in nearly any position find themselves required to make sense of data or oversee consultants. The course is appropriate for emerging and experienced professionals, especially those interested in education, exhibitions, marketing, and development in museums and related organizations. The course is centered around an experiential project in which students collaboratively interpret actual data for a museum partner.
Spring 2023
Museums and Technology
Katherine Burton Jones MA, Director, Museum Studies, Harvard Extension School
The internet has changed the way nonprofits deliver information to constituents and the general public. In this course, we explore the ways in which nonprofits use the web and social media to deliver programmatic content as well as how the web and social media are used in marketing, public relations, and fundraising. We also take a look at the back-of-house systems that these organizations rely on for their information infrastructure, providing an in-depth look at the use of databases and websites to further the organization's mission.
Prerequisites: Some knowledge of computer systems, especially in the nonprofit sector.
Spring 2023
The Future of Historic House Museums
Abby Battis ALM, Associate Director for Collections, Historic Beverly
The changing attitudes in historic interpretation along with challenges facing historic house museums today, such as recovering from a worldwide pandemic, shifting demographics, funding, maintenance, and technology have contributed to declining attendance and waning interest in historic house museums around the world. This course examines the traditional methods for historic house museum sustainability, including collections care and exhibit design, and explores feasible and reinvented methods for reinterpreting the historic house museum in order to maintain its relevance in a changing society.
Prerequisites: Museum experience is a plus.
Fall 2022
Museums as Sites for Social Action
Brenda Tindal MA, Executive Director, Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
The twenty-first century museum is not merely a cabinet of curiosity. It is well-positioned to serve as a hub for new learning, an arbiter of equitable and inclusive practices, and to play a meaningful role in helping its visitors, stakeholders, and communities grapple with hard truths and nuanced issues. Using a survey of museum case studies, key literature, and the Socratic method of inquiry, this course explores museums as sites of social action through a series of questions, including: what is the role and responsibility of the museum in responding to issues affecting our communities locally and globally? How do the museum's internal practices need to change to align with, and better inform, their public practice?
Fall 2022
Close Looking in the Museum: Pedagogies in Practice
Jennifer Thum PhD, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement and Assistant Research Curator, Harvard Art Museums - Jeanne Marie Burke ALM, Academic and Public Programs Coordinator, Harvard Art Museums
The average museum visitor spends less than 30 seconds looking at a work of art. However, research shows that there are many benefits to slowing down, looking closely, and making room for deeper engagement. What are those benefits? How does one even begin to look closely? And how can we convince audiences of the power of slowing down? This course takes advantage of the diverse, world-class collections at the Harvard Art Museums to teach first-hand the principles of close looking, while taking a critical approach to this form of museum pedagogy. We read key scholarship on a variety of close-looking methods from writing to juxtaposition to contour drawing and then experience and assess those methods for ourselves at the Harvard Art Museums. We explore what close looking can look like for various types of audience and imagine creative ways to engage viewers longer and more deeply. Course activities include close looking alone and in groups, active discussions, and group presentations. Readings on the theories and methods of close looking form the basis of our inquiries. The final assignment is for students to design their own close-looking programs for audiences they know well.
Spring 2023
New England and the South Seas: Studying Exploration and Exploitation through Museum Collections
Ingrid Ahlgren PhD, Curator of Oceanic Collections, Peabody Museum at Harvard University
At the end of the 18th century, the United States was recently successful in its struggle for political independence, but was then driven to establish its economic autonomy. New England's merchants needed a way to escape the depression that had followed the American Revolutionary War and had closed British ports to US imports. It was a need fulfilled and exceeded by the ever-shifting iterations of trans-Pacific trade, connecting Indigenous and settler communities in New England, the Northwest Coast, the Pacific Islands, and China. As the fledgling United States actively explored and exchanged goods with the islands across the great wide Pacific Ocean, it was New England and Massachusetts in particular that led the charge of exploration, exploitation, and expansion, resulting in massive accumulations of cultural collections and historical accounts of cross-cultural encounters. This history of exchange and contact has had significant impacts for both the Pacific and the United States, economically, culturally, and politically. Using a variety of sources, including items from Harvard's Peabody Museum, historical accounts, oral histories, and anthropological writings, this course illuminates some of these historical legacies and demonstrates how museum collections can shed light on the unique relationships and exchanges between Pacific Islanders and New Englander settlers. Specifically, the course investigates the China Pacific trade, the whaling industry, the foreign Christian ministries, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands as important events and spaces where the United States took its clumsy first colonizing steps towards becoming a global power.
Fall 2022
Museums and Material Culture
Reed A. Gochberg PhD, Associate Curator and Manager of Exhibitions, Concord Museum
How can museums tell more inclusive histories through objects? In this course, we explore how material culture can illuminate the lives of people often left out of the archive or historical record. From clothing and accessories to food and toys, objects and the institutions that collect them provide a material record of how political, economic, and social events shaped the lives of ordinary people. By examining how objects were made, used, and collected, we explore how they open up possibilities for interpreting familiar subjects in new ways and developing inclusive programs. Throughout the semester, we practice methods for analyzing objects, understanding them in the context of museums, and incorporating them into exhibitions and programs. We consider objects alongside advertisements, archival records, and other primary sources in order to explore strategies for interpretation, curatorial interventions, and public programs. We also consider the history of museums and their collecting practices in relation to contemporary scholarship and cultural debates about decolonization, repatriation, and ownership. Readings and assignments include scholarship by James Delbourgo, Amy Lonetree, Christine DeLucia; works and exhibitions by Fred Wilson, Kara Walker, and Wendy Red Star; and individual research and writing assignments such as op-ed essays, exhibition proposals, and lesson plans.
Fall 2022
Museum Ethics: Framework and Practice
Kara L. Schneiderman MA, Director of Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Now more than ever, ethical considerations touch all areas of the museum profession. But what are ethical standards and best practices for the museum field and why do they matter? Or do they matter? How are ethics and the law different and when do they overlap? Where do organizational management and museum policy fit in? And what do you do when faced with an ethical challenge at your museum? This course provides both a theoretical framework and practical tools for applying professional codes of ethics towards a better understanding of the critical role of museums in society today. Modules examine museum ethics in the context of governance, fundraising, collecting and curating, deaccessioning, cultural heritage, decolonization, diversity and inclusion, and social justice. Through a case study approach, students analyze and evaluate the outcomes of real-world ethical challenges and broaden their understanding of the expanding role of museums as catalysts for ethical change.
Prerequisites: MUSE E-100 or the equivalent recommended.
Spring 2023
Museum Registration: Systems and Strategies
Kara L. Schneiderman MA, Director of Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Registrars wear many hats in the museum world. They are organizers, risk managers, and problem solvers as they tackle the many legal and managerial challenges faced by today's museums. In this course, students delve into the numerous facets of museum registration systems and the role of the registrar in museum management and administration. Modules focus both on policy development and procedural solutions, including collections management and ethics policies, acquisitions and accessioning, deaccessioning, loans, documentation, provenance research, legal issues, and rights and reproductions. Procedures such as condition reporting, object numbering and labeling, packing and shipping, and managing traveling exhibitions are also covered. Through lectures, readings, case studies, and in-class activities, students learn about the administrative, legal, and practical concerns of museum registration within the context of professional standards and best practices for the museum field.
Prerequisites: MUSE E-100 or the equivalent.
Spring 2023
Mastering Museum Management
Katherine Burton Jones MA, Director, Museum Studies, Harvard Extension School - Lawrence Scott Motz MBA, Consultant - Laura B. Roberts MBA, Principal, Roberts Consulting
The course is designed to provide a deeper understanding of assorted topics at the intersection of managerial structures, external constituencies, financial sustainability, and operational efficiency. The first module of the course looks at the building blocks of nonprofit organizational development in the context of museums: mission and vision, strategic planning, organizational lifecycle, and governance. The second looks at managing relationships with a museum's various audiences and stakeholders through fundraising and membership programs, community engagement strategies, and various marketing tools. Module three focuses on managing the financial aspects of museums and other institutions operating in the current environment, specifically strategic revenue sources, an in-depth look at endowments, and creating a project plan and projections. The final module provides an opportunity to synthesize the first three by examining the various areas of museum operations and engaging with two scenarios from guest speakers. This module highlights the importance of a cohesive team and a robust communication plan, both internal and external. This course is about the real-world challenges facing museum managers and draws on management theory, case studies, and current thinking about the directions and initiatives museums need to engage in. Guest speakers offer perspectives from a variety of museums and administrative functions.
Prerequisites: While there are no academic prerequisites, it is strongly recommended that the student have taken two or more of the following courses: MUSE E-100, MUSE E-102, MUSE E-105, and MUSE E-185 (offered previously).
Spring 2023
Art Crime: Implications and Investigations
Anthony Amore MPA, Security Director and Chief Investigator, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - Geoffrey Kelly MA, Federal Law Enforcement Official
Crimes against art are a multi-billion dollar per year illicit activity. They range from thefts from museums and homes to the trafficking of looted antiquities. This course explores the impacts of art crimes and the methods of investigating them through the use of real-world examples.
Fall 2022
Capstone Projects in Museum Studies
Katherine Burton Jones MA, Director, Museum Studies, Harvard Extension School
This course provides students with the opportunity to complete a capstone project related to their professional interests. Capstone projects can include an analysis of a compelling and hotly debated issue within the field of museum studies or, perhaps, creation of a final product that can be used as demonstration of expertise to future or current employers, such as a museum education curriculum, multimedia design, or exhibit.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted capstone track candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, museum studies. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in March with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, MUSE S-598, in the previous Harvard Summer School term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2023
Capstone Projects in Museum Studies
Katherine Burton Jones MA, Director, Museum Studies, Harvard Extension School
This course provides students with the opportunity to complete a capstone project related to their professional interests. Capstone projects can include an analysis of a compelling and hotly debated issue within the field of museum studies or, perhaps, creation of a final product that can be used as demonstration of expertise to future or current employers, such as a museum education curriculum, multimedia design, or exhibit.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted capstone track candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, museum studies. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in May with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, MUSE E-598, in the previous fall term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2023
Capstone Projects in Museum Studies
Katherine Burton Jones MA, Director, Museum Studies, Harvard Extension School
This course provides students with the opportunity to complete a capstone project related to their professional interests. Capstone projects can include an analysis of a compelling and hotly debated issue within the field of museum studies or, perhaps, creation of a final product that can be used as demonstration of expertise to future or current employers, such as a museum education curriculum, multimedia design, or exhibit.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted capstone track candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, museum studies. Candidates must be in good academic standing, ready to graduate in May with only the capstone left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone tutorial, MUSE E-598, in the previous fall term. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.