A Digitally Enabled Museum Studies Curriculum?

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Jeffrey McClurken

Among the various hats I wear, I’m the chair of the host department for UMW’s museum studies minor (started 3 years ago) and a founding member of UMW’s digital studies minor (starting this fall).   Both of these undergraduate minors are interdisciplinary and public facing in approach, courses, and content.  As an affiliated faculty member in both, recently I’ve been thinking a great deal about the ways that these two programs are informing each other and how we might think of a curriculum that combined the two.

Would people be interested in conversation(s) about the impact of digital tools and resources on the teaching/curriculum for Museum Studies or Public History at the undergraduate or graduate level, about the lessons to be learned about program development by newer fields such as Digital Studies from more established curricula in Museum Studies and Public History, or about a glorious mash-up of all of the above?  What do students entering Public History or Museum Studies programs need to know about digital tools and resources?

Categories: Museums, Session: Talk, Teaching, Your Categories Are Inadequate |

About Jeffrey McClurken

I've taught at UMW since 1999 and I am Professor of History and American Studies and Chief of Staff to the President of UMW. I am the former Special Assistant to the Provost for Teaching, Technology, and Innovation. I am affiliated faculty with programs in Museum Studies, Digital Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies. I am also the Digital History Review Editor for the Journal of American History. My current research areas include the history of the Civil War, veterans, families, the Pinkertons, mental institutions, the 19th-Century American South, and the digital humanities. I've taught classes on a wide array of US History topics, including Civil War and Reconstruction, American technology and culture, digital history, women's history, history & film, and the history of the Information Age. I am particularly interested in the scholarship and practice of digitally enabled pedagogy. My postings, classes, and other projects can be found at http://mcclurken.org/