The Museum Studies Program provides a forum for critical debates, scholarship, and practices relevant to museums on our campus and beyond. We offer an interdisciplinary certificate program that affords graduate students the opportunity to study and engage with museums and allied institutions. Our dynamic curriculum links museum history, theory, and practice combining traditional classroom learning with applied experience through internships and field trips. Students examine museums’ entangled histories with colonialism and nationalism, tap the promise of museums for the communities they serve, and explore reparative and decolonial museum practices.
Through teaching, capstone projects, and internships, we open pathways to museum careers. With the MSP certificate students gain professional credentials for work in museums. We also strengthen and support museum-related research by offering fellowships for students whose dissertations contribute to the field of museum studies.
MSP has 2 funds that you can help support:
- The Museum Studies Program Fund supports professional development and practical engagement experiences for students enrolled in the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program.
- The Director’s Strategic Fund provides unrestricted funds that are critical to the well-being and ongoing growth of the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate 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 UM faculty and students, and to address additional short-term needs of the Museum Studies Program.