Audience Rsch Proj Evaluation

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to current theory and practice in the field of museum visitor studies. In a weekly seminar, we will review and discuss exemplar literature by practitioners working in the social sciences to familiarize students with the range of contemporary discourse and to introduce the major terms and concepts operationalized within museum visitor studies. Through a sequence of practical exercises employing qualitative methods, students will collaboratively engage their emerging conceptual understanding through first-hand research with museum users. Research exercises will combine the students’ growing understanding of research methodology, ethics and best practices, and comparative analysis to produce written reports of their findings that meet accepted standards for professional practice. Students will also investigate a current key topic in visitor studies by a careful reading of literature broadly, and produce a written essay at the end of the semester that examines and argues a position regarding that theoretical or practical topic.