The Museum Studies Program provides opportunities to University of Michigan graduate students to integrate practical experience with classroom study on the complex and rapidly changing world of today’s museums.
In the classroom, our interdisciplinary cohorts of graduate students from nine colleges and 30 academic departments study the three-plus hundred years of museum history and examine current theoretical debates about ownership, ethics, exhibition practices, technology, and audience, among other topics. Museum scholars and professionals guest-lecture in our classes, serve as visiting scholars, and participate in our active program of lectures, workshops, and conferences, further enriching classroom experience. Through our Fellowship for Dissertation Research on Museums and Working Paper Series, our program supports students and faculty research and scholarship on an array of topics on museums and heritage.
Outside the classroom, site visits to our more than 40 partner museums, capstone projects, and intensive three-month practicums provide students with experiences of museum work in institutions around the world. As places where scholarly knowledge meets public engagement, and where, as museum scholar, Elaine Heumann Gurian, puts it, strangers can safely meet— to learn, view, experience, and enjoy, museums constitute an important site of engaged learning and teaching for University of Michigan students; and our Museum Studies Certificate graduates are now working in museums, universities, and archives around the world.
- Give online (click here and type “museum” in search box)
- Print and mail a Pledge card
Your support to one of the following funds can help us to strengthen our commitment to graduate student research, teaching, and hands-on learning in museums:
Director’s Strategic Fund
The Director’s Strategic Fund provides unrestricted funds that are critical to the well-being and ongoing growth of the Museum Studies Program. The strategic fund is used for the general activities of the program, including the support of hosting, guest teaching, research and teaching support for affiliated U-M faculty and students, and to address additional short-term needs of the Museum Studies Program.
Museum Studies Program Fund (Endowment)
Supports professional development and practical engagement experiences for students enrolled in the Museum Studies Graduate Program. Earnings from this endowment have been used: to supplement other sources of MSP-student support and address specific student funding needs; to support student travel to museums and interactions with museum professionals; and to support student-faculty collaborations on museum-related research, teaching, exhibition development and other professional activities.
Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like further information about supporting the Museum Studies Program.
