Category: Museum Matters@Michigan

Welcome to the Museum Studies blog at the University of Michigan!

Museums today are more dynamic than ever: in addition to being a site for the collection, study, and exhibition of objects, they have become vital arenas for civic life and community participation. This blog brings together the Graduate Certificate Program and Undergraduate Minor in Museum Studies to share museum happenings, research, and commentary. Our goal is to connect members of the museum community both at UM and in Southeast Michigan more broadly. Check back regularly for student reflections, exhibition reviews, internship/practicum experiences, alumni spotlights, and more. To submit an entry for inclusion on this page, please contact us at [email protected].

ARCA students at Necropolis Banditaccia.

Emily Finch — “The Impressions and Importance of Interdisciplinary Museum Studies: Investigating the Intersection of Law, Information, and Ethics”

  I am genuinely awestruck and excited by the cool metallic shelves, faintly buzzing lights, sight of sterile and ordered archival boxes, and the faint musky and woody smell of documents in an archive. However, the warmth of the sun, feeling of walking on...

Hannah Hoover — “Narrating Local, Native Histories from Legacy Collections at the Brays Island Nature Center in South Carolina”

  In November of 2022, I visited the Brays Island Nature Center near where I live in Beaufort, South Carolina. In addition to educating the many owners of the Brays Island Plantation, a 5500-acre residential and sporting community, the nature center stores archaeological collections...

Kimberly Ransom — “From Memory to Monuments: Using Historical Research to Create a Local Rosenwald Museum in Pickens County, Alabama”

Familial Memory & Foundations of Schooling As an African American girl growing up on the Southside of Chicago, I knew nearly nothing about my family’s past. I knew, in the 1950s, my mother, her siblings, and my grandparents fled rural Alabama for Chicago. My...