Museum Studies

Course Outlines

Introduction

All students take two 20 credit programme core courses in Museology and Research and Professional Skills. You also take four 20 credit courses from your strand (a combination of strand core and optional courses) and one 60 credit research project.

Core Courses - All Strands

Introduction to Museology

This course introduces students to different approaches to, and critical reflections on, museums. This course is taught intesively over the first five weeks of first semester in order to give students a thorough grounding in their studies as soon as possible.

• History of the Museum
• Museum Politics
• Museum Architecture
• Museum Audiences
• Collections Management
• Museum Ethics and Legal Frameworks
• Museum Education
• Museum Conservation
• Museological Developments

Students are assessed by an essay and seminar critique.

Research and Professional Skills

This course provides students with an opportunity to develop a range of subject, transferable and intellectual skills though a series of short lectures, seminars and practical sessions. This course is taught over 11 weeks of first semster.

• Objects as sources of Information
• Museum Accessibility
• Object Handling and Storage
• Presentation Skills
• Cultural Awareness
• Job Applications and CV Writing
• Effective Reading and Writing
• Grant Applications and Research Proposals

Students are assessed by a portfolio of work built up from the weekly topics.

Optional Courses - All Strands

Work Placement

Valuable work experience in a museum, gallery or other cultural institution is provided through the Work Placement in second semester. We have developed close links with a number of institutions, giving students the chance to engage in a project-based work placement, where they can explore a possible future career, while meeting professional practitioners and developing skills and experience. A work placement might also provide the opportunity to develop a research subject for a dissertation.

A project is drawn up between the host institution, the student and the course convenor. Projects may involve archival, curatorial or related work. Considerable emphasis is placed on practical skills.

Hunterian Exhibition Course

Second semester optional course taught by staff from The Hunterian.

• Induction
• Exhibition Research and Concept Development
• Collections Care 1
• Collections Care 2
• Design and Interpretation
• Education and Public Programming
• Reaching our Audience
• Budgeting and Fundraising
• Exhibition Merchandise
• Evaluation Methodology

Assessment: Work Diary and Porfolio

2D Digitisation

Second semester optional course

• Introduction
• Resource Selection Strategies
• Digitisation Chain and Document Properties
• Digitising Textual Sources
• Image Quality
• Image Processing
• Metadata
• Photography
• Selecting Equipment
• Project Briefing

Assessment: 100% Project

Theory and Practice Strand Courses

Museum Issues

First Semester core course for Theory and Practice.

• Economic and Social Context
• Funding and Income Generation
• Museum Ethics Guidelines
• Managing Volunteers
• Conservation v Restoration
• Managing and Caring for Collections
• Stakeholder and Audience Development
• Strategic Objectives
• Museum Accreditation and Recognition
• Audience Development

Assessment: Essay 70%, report or review 30%

Phenomenology

Second Semester core course for Theory and Practice.

• Introduction to Phenomenology 1
• Introduction to Phenomenology 2
• World
• Time and Memory
• Space and Embodiment
• Subjectivity
• Phenomenological Aesthetics
• Culture, Science and the Lifeworld
• Intersubjectivity
• Transcending Phenomenology

Assessment: Essay 1 40% Essay 2 60%

Heritage and Cultural Informatics

Second Semester core course for Theory and Practice.

• What is the Cultural Heritage Sector?
• Using metadata standards
• ICT in heritage organisations
• ICT in archives
• Site visit – Digital Design Studio
• ICT in Libraries
• Digital Preservation
• ICT in Museums
• Web 2.0
• Users and education, fun and curriculum
• New media, new networking: games and gaming technology

Assessment: Essay 60% Book Review 40%

Museum Practice

Second Semester optional course taught by Glasgow Museums at the Glasgow Museusm Resource Centre.

• What is a Museum Service
• Applied Object Research
• The Kelvingrove Redisplay
• Curatorial Practice
• Collections Navigator & Museums Online
• The Riverside Museum
• Community Engagement
• Museum Learning
• Conservation in Practice
• Student Presentations
• Getting a job in a museum

Assessment: Report 60% Presentation 40%

Artefact and Material Cultures Strand Courses

Material Culture in Context

Introduces current theoretical and methodological perspectives in Material Culture studies. Key themes include changing perspectives on the meaning of objects in archaeological thought, the presentation and management of cultural objects and understanding modern material culture.

The Process of Artefact Studies

Looks at the treatment, analysis and interpretation of objects from archaeological recovery in the field through specialist examination and conservation to final museum display and long-term curation.

Critical Themes in the Treatment and Display of Objects

A series of museum visits and gallery and exhibition fieldtrips during which you consider the presentation of an array of different material and develop your analysis through a semester-long advanced project.

Artefact and Material Culture Optional Courses (subject to availability)

• Lithic Analysis
• Working with pottery
• Science-based Analysis of archaeological materials
• Early Medieval artefacts
• Viking and Late Norse Artefacts (AD 750-1350)

History of Collecting and Collections Strand Courses

Cultures of Collecting

• William Hunter and William Burrell: two Glasgow collections
• Collecting insects in the 18th century – the role of collections in scientific progress
• The birth of the museum
• The politics of fashion
• Virtuoso culture and the activities of the Royal Society
• The collections of the Dukes of Hamilton
• The art gallery and museum in the 20th century
• The politics of collecting and display in early 20th century Germany
• Collecting, documenting and preserving digital art
• Conservation in public museums in the 19th and 20th centuries

Assessment: essay (3-4,000 words) 90%; oral presentation 10%

Mapping Contemporary Art in Scotland

This semester one course establishes an overview of the collections of contemporary art currently held in public trust or made publicly accessible in Scotland, underpinned with a critical consideration of the formation of those contemporary holdings – be they public or private or national, civic or independent – as comparative with wider UK and international examples. The course will also include a number of case-study sessions, with contributions from curators who work with a range of collections, focusing on how they develop their curating practice around contemporary art.

Glasgow: Collecting and Curating Contemporary Art  1990 onwards

This semester two course provides a focused engagement with the collecting policy for contemporary art at Glasgow Museums and the strategies for its display, storage and dissemination, comparative to UK and international peers such as Berlin and Barcelona. Commencing with a critical consideration and contextualisation of contemporary collecting in Glasgow from 1990 onwards, the course will specifically focus on GoMA’s participation in the recent Art Fund International initiative through a close consideration of specific case-study acquisitions.

Dress and Textile History Strand Courses

Framing Dress and Textile Histories

This course looks at different methodologies for studying dress and textile histories.

• History of the study of dress and textile histories
• Material Culture
• Semiotics
• Art History
• Consumption
• Body
• Gender
• Social Anthropology
• Technology

Assessment: Object-based Essay 90%, Presentation 10%

Making Dress and Textile Histories

This course looks a professional skills associated with working with dress and textile collections

• History of collecting dress and textiles
• Research
• Collections management
• Handling and packing
• Project management
• Display
• Interpretation
• Costume mounting

Assessment: Exhibition or Research Proposal and Plan 90%, Presentation 10%

Eighteenth-Century Costume

• Introduction to the eighteenth century
• Cut and construction of women’s wear
• Textile industry
• Gender
• Informal and court dress
• Cut and construction of men’s wear
• Dress and Identity
• Consumption

Assessment: Essay 90%, Presentation 10%