Museum Anthropology Concentration

Students who are working towards an MA in Anthropology may also elect to complete a concentration in Museum Anthropology. This concentration provides students with experiences in analyzing the representation, exhibition, and curation of material culture. Museums are integral to establishing authority over knowledge with respect to what is displayed and how it is exhibited. Cultural patrimony, nationalism, identity, and cultural meaning are not only represented, but also created in the materials shown to the general public. Therefore, museums are contested places where knowledge is available for consumption, where peoples and objects are viewed, and where ideas about the world are formulated. In adopting an anthropological approach to museums, this concentration is distinct from generalized museum studies; museum anthropologists examine curation, exhibition, and museum practice from a comparative and global perspective that interrogates museums as dynamic institutions embedded in particular social and cultural contexts. Emphasis is on both the role of museums in producing anthropological knowledge and the use of anthropological theory to contextualize and critique museum practices in diverse settings. Options for the concentration are four-field and include independent fieldwork in osteology, paleoanthropology, archaeology or bioarchaeology using museum or laboratory collections, an internship at a museum, analyses of visual, aural, and/or material culture at a museum, cultural resource management, NAGPRA compliance, and studies of identity, cultural patrimony, nationalism, and the production of knowledge at one or more museums. Students complete the concentration by undertaking a focused course of study within their overall MA program. There is no special application process other than that for the MA program, but students should declare their intention to complete this program of study upon entry to the MA program.

All students must complete a minimum of 36 credit hours of graduate-level coursework (6000-8000 level only), with a maximum of two non-anth courses. No course may fulfill more than one requirement, with the possible experience of the Museum Experience course. In some cases, museum anthropology students may be required to complete 39 total credit hours in order to satisfy all requirements.
The following courses count as museum anthropology concentration options (Students should consult the most recent Department of Anthropology M.A. handbook for an updated list of approved Museum Anthropology specialization/ elective courses):

Degree Requirements

Museum anthropology students must devote 18 of their total 36 anthropology MA course credits to the concentration. Both thesis and Capstone students may elect the concentration. To document fulfillment of museum anthropology credit hours, students must return a completed the Museum Anthropology Course Completion Form to the graduate director.

Museum Anthropology Courses

ANTH 6150 - Museum Anthropology 3 Credit Hours

ANTH 6150 - Museum Anthropology 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 8070 - Museum Experience 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 8070 provides credit for a student museums-focused project, usually under the advisement of an anthropology faculty member. Students should enroll in this course ONLY when planning a project in consultation with museum anthropology faculty. On a case-by-case basis (to be determined by the graduate director in consultation with museum anthropology faculty and a student’s thesis chair/ capstone advisor), ANTH 8070 may be used to satisfy the Research Skills Requirement OR as a replacement for ANTH 8970 - Thesis Prospectus (3 Credit Hours).

Additional Museum Anthropology Courses

Students must complete 12 additional museum anthropology credit hours selected from this list. These courses may concurrently satisfy MA requirements.

Students who wish to substitute other courses as Museum Anthropology courses should consult with the graduate director. For example, a student may elect to do a museum-focused project in their subfield’s theory course and obtain permission for this course to count as a museum anthropology course.

ANTH 6080 - Consumer Culture, Social Change, and Ethnography 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6112 - Modernity and Identity 4 Credit Hours
ANTH 6160 - Archaeology of South America 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6170 - Mesoamerican Archaeology 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6180 - Archaeology of Southeastern United States 4 Credit Hours
ANTH 6190 - Archaeological Practice and the Public 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6230 - The Archaeology of Death and Dying 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6300 - Human Evolution 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6360 - Methods and Analysis in Biological Anthropology 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6370 - Forensic Anthropology 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6390 - Diet, Demography, and Disease 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6400 - Anthropology of Tourism 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6470 - Visual Culture 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6520 - Anthropology of Public Culture 4 Credit Hours
ANTH 6530 - The Archaeology of Ancient Cities 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6590 - Archaeological Methods 4 Credit Hours
ANTH 6600 - Archaeological Theory 4 Credit Hours
ANTH 6700 - Cultures of Display: Archaeology, Museums and Nationalism 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6740 - Cultural History of Sexuality: From Plato to Foucault 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6750 - Film Culture, Morality and Modernity 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6760 - Archaeology of the Olympics 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 6780 - Critical Perspectives on Democracy, Secularism and Religion 3 Credit Hours
ANTH 8010 - Qualitative Methods in Anthropology 3 Credit Hours