Public History: Museums

Catalog description

This course introduces graduate students to issues involved in the management of history museums while considering many questions about the role and function of museums in American society. What does it mean to say that museums serve the public? How can museums become more diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive institutions? How do museums tell stories and who gets to decide what stories to tell? How and why do museums collect, care for, and display some objects and not others? Why do people visit museums, what do they experience there, and what do those visits mean to them? What does "success" look like and how does one measure it? What financial, administrative, and ethical issues do museums face? How can museums critically address today's complex political, cultural, and social realities?