Course Syllabus

Anth 455-555 Museum Anthropology Syllabus.pdf

ANTH 455/555: Museum Anthropology

Spring 2026, Tu/Th 9:10-10:25, College Hall 135, 3 Credits

National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC (left) and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, WA (right).

Instructor: Dr. Samantha G. Fladd

Office: College Hall 130

Email: Samantha.fladd@wsu.edu

Student Hours: Wednesday 2-4 PM and by appointment

Prerequisites: None

Course Description:

This course situates anthropology museums within the broader museum field and the history of the field of anthropology. Students will consider the ways cultural materials have been collected, interpreted, and presented in museum contexts. Using a mixture of readings, online resources, and in-class activities, we will study the history, developments, and debates in museum practice. While examples will be drawn from around the world, the course will focus on museums in North America that house and exhibit Indigenous materials. Centering concepts of cultural heritage and ethical museum approaches, students will learn how museums emerged historically, how they function in society today, and where the field is going in the future.

Topics of discussion will include decolonization, repatriation, collections care, cultural care, curatorial voice, conservation, exhibit design, and outreach. Class periods will involve a range of activities incorporating lectures, discussions, quizzes, and hands-on experience. The course will help prepare students for a career in museum work, while also emphasizing the role of heritage preservation and science communication in the modern world.

Learning Outcomes:

This course furthers university undergraduate learning goals of diversity, creative and critical thinking, information literacy, communication, and depth, breadth, and integration of learning by providing students with a broad understanding of museums and their role in society.

All students should be able to do the following at the end of this course:

Learning Outcome	Course Content Weeks	Assignments
Understand how museums emerged through time and their history as institutions.	Weeks 1-2	Quiz #1
Recognize how museums are organized and run.	Weeks 3-4	Quiz #1
Demonstrate knowledge of the process of museum curation and collections care.	Weeks 4-11	Quizzes #1 and #2
Think critically about colonial and decolonial practices in museums.	Weeks 8 and 12	Quizzes #2 and #3; Ethnography Report
Assess ethical practices within museum settings, including repatriation both within and beyond NAGPRA.	Weeks 8, 10-14	Quizzes #2 and #3; Ethnography Report
Acquire the ability to put collections management, exhibit design, and outreach principles into practice.	Weeks 3-15	Lab Activities 1-6; Final Project

Learning Outcomes:

WSU Learning Goal of Undergraduate Education	Instructor Designated Learning Goals	Course Takeaways	Class Topics and Assignments
Understand Diversity	Assess ethical practices within museum settings, including repatriation both within and beyond NAGPRA.	Understand the many ethical issues that museum professionals face, including questions over ownership, representation, and repatriation	Lectures and Discussions in Weeks 8 and 10-14 focused on the many ethical aspects of museum work. Quizzes #2 and #3 will assess this knowledge.
		Demonstrate knowledge of NAGPRA and its core goals/requirements, as well as the ways museums are approaching repatriation across the world.	Lectures and Discussions in Week 8 will focus explicitly on repatriation. Quiz #2 will assess this knowledge.
		Recognize museum practices vary around the world, particularly the ways Indigenous-led museums approach their work	Lectures/discussion throughout the semester will incorporate diverse examples of museum approaches. Through a focus on the National Museum of the American Indian, the ethnography report and discussion in Week 10 will highlight different ways of doing museum work.
Creative and Critical Thinking	Think critically about colonial and decolonial practices in museums.	Understand the history of museum work and its ties to colonial practices around the world.	The history of museum practice and its current form will be covered in lectures and discussions in Weeks 1-3. Quiz #1 will assess this knowledge.
Creative and Critical Thinking		Learn about practices that may contribute to decolonizing museum spaces and creating more accessible opportunities.	Lectures and discussions in class will actively highlight approaches to decolonizing museums in Weeks 6 and 8. Quiz #2 will assess this information and the Ethnography Report and discussion in Week 10 will allow for further consideration of approaches to decolonization.
Information Literacy	Understand how museums emerged through time and their history as institutions.	Understand the history of museum work and its ties to colonial practices around the world.	The history of museum practice and its current form will be covered in lectures and discussions in Weeks 1-3. Quiz #1 will assess this knowledge.
Information Literacy	Recognize how museums are organized and run.	Recognize the main roles and activities involved in museum work.	Museum practices will be covered in lectures and discussions during Weeks 3-13. All three Quizzes will touch on aspects of museum practice, and the lab activities and final project will assess the ability to put these skills into practice.
Communication	Acquire the ability to put collections management, exhibit design, and outreach principles into practice.	Learn how museums communicate effectively to different audiences through collections management, exhibit design, and outreach.	Lab Activities are designed to practice various aspects of museum communication ranging from collections management to exhibit production to outreach content.
Depth, Breadth, and Integration	Demonstrate knowledge of the process of museum curation and collections care.	Understand how museums contribute to bestowing and creating value in society.	Lectures and discussions in Weeks 1-3, 12, and 14 will focus on museums roles in society. Quizzes #1 and #3 will assess the information related to these topics.
Depth, Breadth, and Integration		Recognize how the treatment of objects in museum spaces create value and meaning.	The Lab Activities and Final Project will allow students to demonstrate the process themselves.

Communication & Shared Expectations:

Effective communication can help improve our class experience and provide practice for an important life skill. Here are some tips for communicating questions and concerns or reaching out to me in general:

Emailing me directly (fladd@wsu.edu) is a more reliable way to reach me than messaging me through Canvas.
In all emails to me, please include ANTH455/555 in the subject line.
Please use complete sentences and clear, respectful language. Include a greeting and sign with your full name. This is considered “best practice” for email correspondence in professional settings.
I try to respond to all emails within 24 hours Mon-Fri, and within 48 hours on the weekend. If you do not hear from me in this timeframe, please kindly email me again.

Grades sometimes overshadow growth, curiosity, and learning in courses. Additionally, I recognize that grading may be subjective and biased. To address these issues, I follow set principles for grading:

I will attempt to make grading transparent by specifying expectations for all assignments.
I will grade all assignments within two weeks of the due date.
Four participation days are set to be dropped in Canvas, which you will see reflected in Canvas in real-time.

I will actively seek your feedback during the semester so that I can improve this class and your learning experience along the way.

Course Evaluation:

This course will be graded based on a mixture of attendance/participation, museum “lab” activities, quizzes, a report on a museum ethnography, and a final project. You must attend class and complete all assignments and readings to excel in this course. All assignments will be submitted via Canvas. Quizzes will be on paper in class. You will earn points as follows:

Grading Breakdown:

*Assignment*	*Points*	*Percentage*
Participation/Attendance	50	10%
Content Quiz (3 total)	150 (50 points x 3)	30%
Museum Ethnography Report	50	10%
Museum “Lab” Activities (6 total)	150 (25 points x 6)	30%
Final Project and Presentation	100	20%
Totals:	500	100%

Final grades will be determined using the following percentages (rounded to the nearest whole point so 93.5% would be an A):

94 – 100 % A 73 – 76 % C

90 – 93 % A- 70 – 72 % C-

87 – 89 % B+ 67 – 69 % D+

83 – 86 % B 60 – 66 % D

80 – 82 % B- 0 – 59 % F

77 – 79 % C+

You can calculate your grade as follows: (Total Points Earned/500) x 100 = grade %

Assigning Incompletes: University Policy (Acad. Reg #90) states that Incompletes may be awarded if: “the student is unable to complete their work on time due to circumstances beyond their control.”

Withdrawal from Course: XX is the last day to drop the class without a record on your transcript. After this date, withdrawals are recorded on your transcript. Contact the register for up-to-date information on withdrawal deadlines.

Required Texts:

Undergraduate students are required to have access to one of the following two books. Graduate students are required to have access to both texts. See Museum Ethnography Assignment Description for more details.

Texts can be purchased on Amazon or at the WSU Bookstore. Other texts and materials will be provided for you as either a PDF or weblink via Canvas.

Lonetree, Amy

2012 Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. $35 ISBN: 0807837156

Shannon, Jennifer

2014 Our Lives: Collaboration, Native Voice, and the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian. School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe. $30 ISBN: 1938645278

Assignments:

Graduate students will have additional responsibilities within this course, including longer papers and additional readings. For each hour of lecture equivalent, graduate students should expect to have a minimum of two hours of work outside class.

Attendance/Participation: 50 points – 2 points x 29 classes (10%):

Students should make all reasonable efforts to attend all class meetings. As this is an upper level undergraduate and graduate course that is dependent on discussion, you cannot do well in this class without being present. You will receive 2 points each day (except for the voluntary lab day in Week 14): one point for being present and one point for actively participating in group activities and discussions. Depending upon the course content each day, participation may be assessed by: completing assignments, activities, or quizzes; actively taking notes and paying attention during lecture (i.e., not being on your phone or otherwise distracted); making at least one comment during discussion days. If speaking up in class places an undue burden on you, please see me for an alternative option to assess participation on discussion heavy days.

Canvas is set up to drop the lowest four grades resulting in four excused absences for all students. If you will miss more than four class periods, it is the student’s responsibility to contact the instructor to discuss if additional absences fall under categories excused by the University. Missing class meetings may result in reducing your overall grade in the class.

Content Quiz: 150 points – 50 points x 3 quizzes (30%):

Three short quizzes will be given in Weeks 5, 9, and 13 to assess comprehension of the material in the course. Quizzes will be based on material from lectures, class discussions, readings, and lab activities. Quizzes are not cumulative and will be based on the information from the start of the semester/last quiz through the class period prior to each quiz. A combination of multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, and short answer questions will appear on each quiz, and students may be required to examine an object provided in the classroom to answer some of the questions. Make-up quizzes will be offered to students who have a university-approved excuse for missing the class period. It is your responsibility to contact Dr. Fladd to set up a make-up ASAP. Barring extenuating circumstances, make-ups will not be offered more than two weeks after the date of the quiz.

Museum Ethnography Report: 50 points (10%):

Each student is required to submit a book review style report on one (undergraduate students) or two (graduate students) museum ethnographies focused on the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. Undergraduates are expected to write a 2-3-page (Times New Roman, 12 pt font, one-inch margins) book review of one of the two books. The review should include a summary of the main points, an assessment of the book’s strengths and weaknesses, and a discussion of how it speaks to themes from the course. Graduate students are expected to produce a 5-6-page (Times New Roman, 12 pt font, one-inch margins) book review of both volumes. These should compare and contrast the two volumes, their goals, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they relate to course materials or their research areas. All students are expected to provide page citations to examples from the text within their report. Books can be found under the required reading section of the syllabus. Reports will be due before Thursday’s class Week 10. A discussion will follow in Thursday’s class and provide an opportunity to earn five extra credit points for the entire class. Students who are not present that day or who have not submitted their reports yet are ineligible for extra credit points. Students will lose 2 points every 24 hours following the due date that the assignment is submitted.

Museum “Lab” Activities: 150 points – 25 points x 6 “labs” (30%):

Museum work is inherently hands-on, and the lab activities are designed to provide you with that hands-on experience. Beginning the third week of class, every other Thursday will be a dedicated “lab” period. To complete these lab assignments, each student will select an object(s) from the Museum of Anthropology collection. These objects will be used for each lab activity and serve as the basis for the final project. Lab activities are designed to be completed within the class period and submitted to the instructor. If a student is unable to complete the activity within the lab period, the assignment can be physically submitted during the class period the following Tuesday. The six labs will be on the following topics with a handout with detailed instructions provided on the day of the activity: Object Handling, Condition Assessment, Records Research, Photography, Exhibit Panel, and Outreach. It is very important that you complete all lab assignments as they will form a portion of your final project. The Thursday class period of Week 14 will be dedicated to make-up lab work. It is a chance to correct issues with earlier labs before your final project is due, complete activities that were not finished during the initial lab periods for credit, and/or make up a lab that may have been missed throughout the semester. Missed labs throughout the semester must be made up during this extra period. Collections can only be accessed with the supervision of Dr. Fladd or the Museum Curator (Madison Pullis), and students will have limited access to their objects outside of class periods.

Final Project and Presentation: 100 points (20%):

The final project and presentation for the course will be a compilation of the lab activities completed throughout the semester. Students are expected to submit two components: a lab report that compiles all lab activities into a cohesive product and a paper involving external research focused on the history of the object, how it should be cared for within the museum, and its potential for exhibit and outreach activities moving forward. Undergraduates are expected to write a 5–8-page paper (Times New Roman, 12 pt font, one-inch margins) utilizing at least 2 external sources about their object, while Graduate students are expected to write a 12-15 page paper (Times New Roman, 12 pt font, one-inch margins) utilizing at least 6 external sources about their object. Additionally, students will all give short presentations (Undergraduates: 5 minutes; Graduates: 10 minutes) about their objects during the last two course periods (Week 15). Students will sign up for a presentation window one week before the presentations are scheduled. The points breakdown for the final project are as follows: paper (50 points), lab report (25 points), presentation (25 points). Final materials must be turned into Canvas by the end of the assigned exam period.

Academic Integrity:

I take academic honesty very seriously, and I expect all students to do the same regarding all submitted work in this course. Plagiarism can include use of AI to write your assignment, turning in the same assignment as a classmate without prior permission, failure to cite sources, or reusing anyone else’s work (a friend’s paper, textbook paragraphs, an article, website, etc.). If you have any questions about what counts as plagiarism, please contact me with questions. When in doubt, cite your sources!

AI Use:

For all assignments, papers, and quizzes, AI use is prohibited. Students are not allowed to use ChatGPT or similar services when writing their papers, completing quizzes in class, or completing lab assignments. AI frequently provides incorrect answers and/or does not appropriately attribute the information it generates to primary sources. It is often easy for professors to identify AI generated work due to the inclusion of information from outside the class scope.

Course materials are copyrighted, including the syllabus, handouts, and lectures. You do not have the right to distribute or copy these materials nor the right to upload them to web-based study sites.

You are responsible for reading WSU’s Academic Integrity Policy, which is based on Washington State law. If you cheat in your work in this class, you will:

Receive a score of zero on the assignment.
Be reported to the Center for Community Standards.
Have the right to appeal my decision.
Not be able to drop the course or withdraw from the course until the appeals process is finished.

If you have any questions about what you can and cannot do in this course, ask me.

If you want to ask for a change in my decision about academic integrity, use the form at the Center for Community Standards website. You must submit this request within 21 calendar days of the decision.

University Syllabus: Students are responsible for reading and understanding all university-wide policies and resources pertaining to all courses (for instance: accommodations, care resources, policies on discrimination or harassment), which can be found in the university syllabus.

Course Schedule:

Week	Day	Topic	Assignment
1	Tues	What is a Museum?
1	Thurs	History of Collecting
2	Tues	History of Museums Part 1
2	Thurs	History of Museums Part 2
3	Tues	Museum Roles and Responsibilities
3	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity 1: Object Handling
4	Tues	Collections Care
4	Thurs	Conservation
5	Tues	(continued)	Quiz #1
5	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity 2: Condition Assessment
6	Tues	Cultural Care
6	Thurs	Archives and Museums
7	Tues	Databasing
7	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity 3: Research and Databasing
8	Tues	Decolonization of Museums
8	Thurs	Repatriation and NAGPRA
9	Tues	(continued)	Quiz #2
9	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity 4: Imaging and Metadata
10	Tues	Exhibit Design
10	Thurs	MNAI Discussion	Ethnography Report Due
11	Tues	Writing for a Museum
11	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity 5: Exhibit Panel
12	Tues	Museums and Value
12	Thurs	Digital Humanities and Science Communication
13	Tues	(continued)	Quiz #3
13	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity 6: Outreach
14	Tues	Silenced Collections
14	Thurs	(continued)	Lab Activity Make-Up Day
15	Tues		Final Presentations
15	Thurs		Final Presentations
16		Final Project due

Readings:

Week 1, Tues: What is a Museum?

Dillenberg, Eugene

2011 "What, if anything, is a museum?" Exhibitionist: 8-13

Gosden, Chris and Frances Larson
2007 What is a Museum? In Knowing Things: Exploring the Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum 1884-1945. Pp. 3-13. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Duncan 1998 "The Art Museum as Ritual." In Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums, edited by Carol Duncan, pp 7-20. Routledge, New. York

Week 1, Thurs: History of Collecting

Ames 1992 "The Development of Museums in the Western World." In Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: 15-24.

Macdonald 2011 "Collecting Practices." In Macdonald (ed) A Companion to Museum Studies: 81-95.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Bachman, Samuel B. 2023 “The Museum as a Colonial Archive: The Collection of Victor and Marie Solioz and Its Role in Forgetting the Colonial Past.” In Z. Jallo (ed) Material Culture in Transit: Theory and Practice, pp 78-97.

Week 2, Tues: History of Museums Part 1

Redman, Samuel J.

2016 Prologue. In Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

West, Susie and Jacqueline Ansell

2010 "A history of heritage." In West (ed.) Understanding Heritage in Practice: 7–42. Manchester University Press, New York.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Greene, Candace S.
1992 Documentation, Attribution and the Ideal Type. In Art and Artifacts: Essays in Material Culture and Museum Studies, In Honor of Jane Powell Dwyer, Harold David Juli, ed. Research Papers in Anthropology Number 5. Pp. 9-18. Providence: Brown University.

Week 2, Thurs: History of Museums Part 2

Kreps, Christina F.

2020 Museum and Applied Anthropology: Shared Histories and Trajectories. In Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Enlightenment, pp. 78-113. Routledge, New York.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Bell, Joshua A.
2017 “A Bundle of Relations: Collections, Collecting and Communities.” Annual Review of Anthropology 46(1): 1-24.

Week 3, Tues: Museum Roles and Responsibilities

Cotter 2009. Why University Museums Matter. New York Times. https://nyti.ms/2smQzgO

Kreps, Christina. 2020. “Mapping Contemporary Museum Anthropology.” In Museums and Anthropology in the Age of Engagement, pp. 36-77.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Goode, G. Brown
2008 [1895] The Relationships and Responsibilities of Museums. In Museum Origins, edited by Genoways and Andrei, pp. 111-124. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Week 3, Thurs: Lab Activity 1 – Object Handling

University of Alaska Museum of the North’s Object Handling Procedure, https://www.uaf.edu/museum/staff-information/pdfs/Object%20Handling%20Procedure.pdf

Watch: Appropriate Handling of Museum Objects Tutorial by the Sustainable Heritage Network, https://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/digital-heritage/appropriate-handling-museum-objects-tutorial

Week 4, Tues: Collections Care

Watch: Collections Care Manuel Videos by the Western Australian Museum, https://manual.museum.wa.gov.au/

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

American Alliance of Museums

2019 Direct Care of Collections: Ethics, Guidelines, and Recommendations. https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Direct-Care-of-Collections_March-2019.pdf

Week 4, Thurs: Conservation

Watch: In Conversation with Dr. Nancy Odegaard, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfIRRKXjL3I

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

O’Hern, Robin, Ellen Pearlstein, and Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi

2016 Beyond the Surface: Where Cultural Contexts and Scientific Analyses Meet in Museum Conservation of West African Power Association Helmet Masks. Museum Anthropology 39(1): 70-86.

Week 5, Tues: Quiz #1

No Readings

Week 5, Thurs: Lab Activity 2 – Condition Assessment

Review Condition Reporting outlined by the American Museum of Natural History: https://www.amnh.org/research/science-conservation/methodologies/condition-reporting

Week 6, Tues: Cultural Care

Shannon, Jennifer

2018 Collections Care Informed by Native American Perspectives: Teaching the Next Generation. Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals 13(¾): 205-224.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

School for Advanced Research
2023 Standards for Museums with Native American Collections: A guide to all aspects of work within museums holding Native collections. https://sarweb.org/iarc/smnac/

Week 6, Thurs: Archives and Museums

Marsh, Diana E., Leopold, Rob, Crowe, Katherine and Kate Madison
2020 Access Policies for Native American Archival Materials in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Case Studies on Access Policies for Native American Archival Materials, Society of American Archivists (4):1-32. https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/Case_3_Access_Policies_for_Native_American_Archival_Materials.pdf

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Allison-Bunnell, Jodi, Linda Long, Trevor J. Bond, Chloe Nielsen, and Amy Valentine

2024 A New Generation of Collecting Priorities: Case Studies from the Northwest. Journal of Western Archives 15(2): 1-26.

Week 7, Tues: Databasing

Bollwerk, Elizabeth, Neha Gupta, and Jolene Smith

2024 A Systems-Thinking Model of Data Management and Use in US Archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Practice 12(1): 53-59.

Hansen, John S.

2019 Cutting Edge and Cutting Corners: Evolving Technology, Expanding Usership, and Responsive Solutions in a Museum Database. Advances in Archaeological Practice 7(3): 234-246.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Guiliano, Jennifer and Carolyn Heitman

2019 Difficult Heritage and the Complexities of Indigenous Data. Journal of Cultural Analytics 4(1): 1-25

Week 7, Thurs: Lab Activity 3 – Research and Databasing

Navarrete, Trilce and John Mackenzie Owen

2016 The Museum as Information Space: Metadata and Documentation. In Cultural Heritage in a Changing World, edited by Karol Jan Borowiecki, Neil Forbes, and Antonella Fresa, pp. 111-123. Springer, Switzerland.

Week 8, Tues: Decolonization of Museums

Bell, Joshua

2021 “Go throw it in the river”: Shifting Values and the Productive Confusions of Collaboration with Museum Collections.” In Museums, Societies and the Creation of Value. Edited by Howard Morphy and Robyn McKenzie. Pp. 169-189. London: Routledge Press.

Bunch III, Lonnie G.
2022 Why the Smithsonian Adopted a New Policy on Ethical Collecting. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/smithsonian-adopted-new-policy-ethical-collecting-180980047/

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Chipangura, Njabulo

2023 The Benin Tusk and Zulu Beadwork: Practicing Decolonial Work at Manchester Museum through Shared Authority. Museum Anthropology 46(2): 106-116.

Watch: Dr. Joseph Aguilar’s talk for Crow Canyon Archaeological Center: Indigenizing Archaeology and Museums, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_BuUtN9mfY

Week 8, Thurs: Repatriation and NAGPRA

Davis, Jenny

2025 Home-Carrying—A Repatriation Trip to Vanuatu 100 Years in the Making. https://www.sapiens.org/culture/international-repatriation-ancestor-vanuatu/

Hollinger, Eric
2019 "Smithsonian Uses 3D Tech to Restore a Broken Sacred Object for Tlingit Indians." https://dpo.si.edu/blog/smithsonian-uses-3d-tech-restore-broken-sacred-object-tlingit-indians

Nash, Stephen E. and Chip Colwell

2020 NAGPRA at 30: The Effects of Repatriation. Annual Review of Anthropology 49: 225-239.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Domeischel, Jenna and Angela Neller

2024 Lessons from NAGPRA: Preparing Institutions for an African American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Advances in Archaeological Practice 12(1): 13-19.

Schroeder, Byron and Xoxi Nayapiltzin

2022 A Complicated History: Collaboration with Collectors to Recover and Repatriate Indigenous Human Remains Removed from Spirit Eye Cave. Advances in Archaeological Practice 10(1): 26-37.

Week 9, Tues: Quiz #2

No Readings.

Week 9, Thurs: Lab Activity 4 – Imaging and Metadata

Gilliland, Anne J.

2016 Setting the Stage. In Introduction to Metadata, edited by Murtha Baca. Getty Publications, Los Angeles. http://www.getty.edu/publications/intrometadata/setting-the-stage/

Week 10, Tues: Exhibit Design

Hoerig, Karl A.

2010 From Third Person to First: A Call for Reciprocity Among Non-Native and Native Museums. Museum Anthropology 33(1): 62-74.

Walhimer, Mark

2022 Chapter 3: From Object to Narrative. In Designing Museum Experiences, pp. 21-28. Rowman & Littlefield, Boulder.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Choose an Exhibit Review from Museum Anthropology to present to the class.

Week 10, Thurs: MNAI Discussion

No readings but review ethnographies to prepare for discussion.

Week 11, Tues: Writing for a Museum

Shannon, Jennifer

2009 The Construction of Native Voice at the National Museum of the American Indian. In Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives, edited by Susan Sleeper-Smith, pp 218-247. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Isaac, Gwyneira, Ingrid Ahlgren, Alan Ojiig Corbiere, and Judith Andrews.

2022 Being Present and Bearing Witness: Talking About Cultural Revitalization Programming in Museums. Museum Management and Curatorship (2022): 1-25.

Week 11, Thurs: Lab Activity 5 – Exhibit Panel

Serrell, Beverly

2015 Excerpts from Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach. Rowman & Littlefield, Boulder.

Week 12, Tues: Museums and Value

Handler, Richard

1992 On the Valuing of Museum Objects. Museum Anthropology 16(1): 21-28.

Moser, Stephanie

2010 The Devil is in the Detail: Museum Displays and the Creation of Knowledge. Museum Anthropology 33: 22-32.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Beier-da Haan, Rosmarie

2006 Re-staging Histories and Identities. In A Companion to Museum Studies, edited by Sharon MacDonald, pp. 186-197. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA.

Week 12, Thurs: Digital Humanities and Science Communication

Giannini, Tula and Jonathan P. Bowen

2022 Museums and Digital Culture: From Reality to Digitality in the Age of Covid-19. Heritage 5(1): 192-214.

Gupta, Neha and Ramona Nicholas

2022 Being Seen, Being Heard: Ownership of Archaeology and Digital Heritage. Archaeologies 18: 495-509.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Bell, Joshua A., Kim Christen, and Mark Turin
2013 “Introduction: After the Return.” Museum Anthropology Review 7 (1-2):1-21.

Week 13, Tues: Quiz #3

No Readings.

Week 13, Thurs: Lab Activity 6 – Outreach

Wallace, Margot

2022 Education. In Writing for Museums: Communicating and Connecting with All Your Audiences, pp. 87-101. Rowman & Littlefield, Boulder.

Week 14, Tues: Silenced Collections

Mason, Rhiannon and Joanne Sayner

2018 Bringing Museal Silence into Focus: Eight Ways of Thinking about Silence in Museums. International Journal of Heritage Studies 25(2): 1-16.

Additional Graduate Student Readings:

Bruchac, Marge M.
2014 “My sisters will not speak: Boas, Hunt, and the ethnographic silencing of First Nations women.” Curator: The Museum Journal 57(2): 153-171.

Week 14, Thurs: Lab Activity Make-Up Day

No Readings.

Week 15, Tues: Final Presentations

No Readings.

Week 15, Thurs: Final Presentations

No Readings.