Museum Studies Minor

Minor Requirements

The minor program consists of 5 courses and a practicum.

• All 5 courses may come from the core course list, or 4 from the core course list and 1 from the elective list.
• One of the core courses must be at the 300-level.
• The five courses must include selections from at least two of the core Museum Studies departments (Art, Sociology & Anthropology, and History).

Museum Studies Core Courses

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of MUCC in the course offerings.

Four or five courses from the following list:

• ANTH 103 - Introduction to Archaeology
• ANTH 228 - Women and Gender in Prehistory
• ANTH 244 - Who Owns Culture?
• ANTH 253 - Field Methods and Interpretation in Archaeology
• ANTH 356 - Ethical Issues-Nat Amer Arch
• ARTH 240 - Art and Theory 1950-1980
• ARTH 243 - Art & Theory 1980 to Present
• ARTH 255 - Museum Exhibitions: Design, Rhetoric, and Interpretation
• ARTH 257 - Colonizing and Decolonizing Museums
• ARTH 262 - War and Plunder
• ARTH 270 - Critical Museum Theory
• ARTH 309 - Scandals, Controversies and Debates in the Art World
• ARTH 348 - Modern Art on Display
• HIST 251 - The Politics of History
• MUSE 120/HIST 120 - Introduction to Museum Studies  
• MUSE 201 - Museum Curating in the Digital Age
• MUSE 219/ALST 219 - Healing Arts: The Idea of Africa in Medicine and Museums  
• MUSE 300 - Museum Curating
• MUSE 310 - Curating Public History: Utopia, Sex and Silver at the Oneida Community Mansion House
• WRIT 241 - Politics of Public Memory
• Other courses at the Advisory Committee's discretion

Electives

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of MUEL in the course offerings.

No more than one course from the following list:

• ARTH 101 - Caves to Cathedrals: The Art of Europe and the Mediterranean to the 13th Century
• ARTH 110 - Global Contemporary Art
• ARTH 210 - Contemporary Art and Politics in the Middle East
• ARTH 226 - Nature's Order: Baroque Arts 1550-1750
• ARTH 244 - Housing the Sacred in Ancient India
• ARTH 246 - From Emperors to Anime: Pictorial Practices in China and Japan
• ARTH 344 - Hindu Temples: Architecture and Sculpture, Architecture as Sculpture
• BIOL 305 - Vertebrate Zoology
• BIOL 315 - Biology of Plants
• CLAS 401 - Senior Seminar in the Classics
• CORE S108 - The Story of Colorants
• CORE C189 - Africa
• CORE S127 - The Artful Brain: An Exploration in Neuroaesthetics
• GEOG 319 - Population and Environment
• GEOL 201 - Mineralogy and Geochemistry and GEOL 201L 
• GEOL 215 - Paleontology of Marine Life and GEOL 215L 
• PHIL 330 - Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
• WRIT 210 - The Rhetoric of Style
• WRIT 225 - Visual Rhetorics
• Other courses at the Advisory Committee's discretion

Additional Stipulations

• If a student majors in Art & Art History, Anthropology, or History and minors in Museum Studies, only one course may count toward their major and the Museum Studies minor.
• A student minoring in Museum Studies may petition the Advisory Board to have a course not included on the list below count toward the degree if the course addresses one or more of the themes noted above.

Practicum

Courses fulfilling this requirement have an attribute of MUPR in the course offerings.

The Practicum in Museum Studies is an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience in a non-profit museum, gallery, cultural center, or historical society. This may take the form of paid or volunteer work or an internship, and must be at least 140 hours in duration. It is expected that the practicum will deepen the student's understanding of a substantive aspect or aspects of the institution's operations through work in a department such as Curatorial, Development, Education, Collections Management, Communications, or Archives.

Students typically fulfill their practicum requirement in one of four ways:

1. Through an internship at one of Colgate's campus museums, the Picker Art Gallery or Longyear Museum of Anthropology, during the academic year. Students should be advised that these internships are highly selective. Occasionally, the Picker and/or Longyear Museums may offer summer internships as well.
2. Through a community-based research project organized by the Summer Field School, an initiative overseen by Colgate University's Upstate Institute. The Summer Field School places students as full-time paid research Fellows at institutions in the region such as the Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Everson Museum of Art, Oneida County Historical Society, Oneida Community Mansion House, Adirondack Museum, Iroquois Indian Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, the Shako:wi Cultural Center, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the National Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro. For more information about programs and opportunities, visit the Upstate Institute web page.
3. Through an established summer internship program at a museum in the U.S. or abroad, such as those offered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Career Services has a comprehensive listing of these opportunities; students should be aware that these internships are extremely selective.
4. By "cold-calling" a museum or historical institution in their hometown and offering to work there over the summer. Museum Studies students have been very successful in these outreach efforts and have had fulfilling experiences working with local institutions in their own communities. The Director of the Museum Studies Program can offer further guidance in this process.

All Museum Studies students should begin planning for their practicum experience as soon as they declare the minor. They are encouraged to consult with their Museum Studies minor adviser about the various ways this requirement can be fulfilled, and about opportunities that best meet their individual needs and interests. Students who wish to fulfill the practicum at an off-campus institution must discuss their plans with, and get approval from, the director of the Museum Studies Program in advance. They must also identify the supervisor who will write a brief evaluation upon their completion of the work. This evaluation must be submitted to the director of the Museum Studies Program, who will notify the Registrar when this requirement for the minor has been fulfilled. Financial support for internships is available through Colgate's Summer Funding, but students should be aware of the competitive nature of these grants and of their early deadlines (usually in late February; for more information and specific deadlines visit summer funding).

Museum Studies Program

For more information about the department, including Faculty, transfer credit, awards, etc., please visit the Museum Studies catalog page.