Museums and Society

Catalog description

This course begins with a look at the history of public history organizations in the United States, particularly the preservation, museum, archival, and educational groups associated with public history. The course will introduce students to various aspects of organizational management including budgeting and finance, personnel issues, staff and board makeup, and public relations. The course will also consider the contemporary relationships, such as multiculturalism and ethnicity, censorship, and political correctness, between public history institutions and the communities they serve. Throughout the semester, students will have the opportunity to meet and talk with working professionals in the Pittsburgh public history community about issues covered in this course. Students will complete a formal research paper on a topic related to contemporary issues in public history and will work, singly or in small groups, to present their research and lead class discussion of the issues their research has raised.