Fall 2025 Museum and Exhibition Studies

Last generated: Thursday, July 17 2025 08:30 AM CDT

NOTE: 500 level courses require graduate standing

MUSE 400

Topics in Museum and Exhibition Studies

3 TO 5 hours. 3 to 4 undergraduate hours. 4 to 5 graduate hours. May be repeated for credit. Extensive computer use required.

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
48881LCD11:00 AM - 01:30 PMM1062HHLopez Garcia, MMeet on campus
3 hours Memory/Activism/Archives From Charlottesville, Virginia, to Cape Town, South Africa, to La Paz, Bolivia, symbols of racism, white supremacy, and colonialism are coming down as part of an overdue racial reckoning in the U.S. and around the world. This course explores the most recent debates regarding public spaces, monuments, and memorials through an interdisciplinary lens, focusing on issues of history, race, ethnicity, violence, and memory. We will investigate the role monuments and memorials play in societies and examine the politics of memorialization and the resurgence of visual activism to decolonize public space. We will broaden our conceptions of monuments as texts beyond stone statues to include performance art, sculpture, paintings, poetry, fiction, film, and other memorial forms. We will also analyze formal commemorations such as war memorials, museums, national parks, and popular culture commemorations in music, movies, art, and on the web. Restricted to Undergrad - Chicago.
43540LCD11:00 AM - 01:30 PMM1062HHMensah, LMeet on campus
4 hours Museums in Theory ritical Museology in the African Diaspora Instructor: Dr. Lucy Mensah Is it possible to decenter Western theories and practices of museology? This course approaches this question by exploring how curators, scholars, artists, architects, and writers of African descent have attempted to reconcile the imperialist histories of museums with their reparative possibilities, among them being the museums role in producing and circulating antiracist counter-histories. The course will consider how museum practitioners of the African Diaspora have addressed issues such as object display, collecting, provenance, interpretation, conservation, organizational culture, and institutional architecture. At stake are the terms by which black historiographies are produced, sustained, and protected in the face of dominant myths around the value of black memory and cultural production. Restricted to Graduate - Chicago or Graduate Non-Degree Chicago.

MUSE 532

Museum Collections

4 hours. Extensive computer use required. Previously listed as AH 532. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the Department. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s).

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
43541LCD03:00 PM - 05:30 PMW3032HHOn campus and online

MUSE 543

Writing for Exhibitions

4 hours. Previously listed as AH 543. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the Department. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s).

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
43534LCD11:00 AM - 01:30 PMR1062HHQuinn, TOn campus and online

MUSE 545

Museum Genres, Practices, and Institutions

4 hours. Previously listed as AH 545. Field trips to multiple cultural sites in the Chicago area. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the Department. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s).

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
43539LCD03:00 PM - 05:30 PMM2092JHLopez Garcia, MOn campus and online
Course Description Are museums still relevant to society today? What are the colonial histories and legacies of museums? Can we build a decolonial museum practice? How can we become critical cultural workers? In this seminar, we will examine these and other questions through the lens of critical theory, Women of Color feminisms, Indigenous studies, literary theory, and Ethnic studies, among others. The course provides a broad introduction to the history of museums, the various types of museums, cultural heritage sites and other sites of preservation and exhibition, and the legacies of colonialism and imperialism in these cultural institutions. We will grapple with issues of representation, extraction, collections and accumulation, racial justice, diversity, and memory. The primary goal is to provide students with a range of theoretical approaches, methods, and alternative museum practices to actively participate in re-imagining museums.

MUSE 546

Seminar in Museum and Exhibition Studies

4 hours. Previously listed as AH 546. Field trips required at a nominal fee. Recommended background: MUSE 532 and MUSE 543 and MUSE 545.

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
45572LCD11:00 AM - 01:30 PMM1072HHLopez Garcia, MOn campus and online
Memory/Activism/Archives From Charlottesville, Virginia, to Cape Town, South Africa, to La Paz, Bolivia, symbols of racism, white supremacy, and colonialism are coming down as part of an overdue racial reckoning in the U.S. and around the world. This course explores the most recent debates regarding public spaces, monuments, and memorials through an interdisciplinary lens, focusing on issues of history, race, ethnicity, violence, and memory. We will investigate the role monuments and memorials play in societies and examine the politics of memorialization and the resurgence of visual activism to decolonize public space. We will broaden our conceptions of monuments as texts beyond stone statues to include performance art, sculpture, paintings, poetry, fiction, film, and other memorial forms. We will also analyze formal commemorations such as war memorials, museums, national parks, and popular culture commemorations in music, movies, art, and on the web. Restricted to Graduate College.
47139LCD11:00 AM - 01:30 PMT1062HHMensah, LOn campus and online
Museums in Theory ritical Museology in the African Diaspora Instructor: Dr. Lucy Mensah Is it possible to decenter Western theories and practices of museology? This course approaches this question by exploring how curators, scholars, artists, architects, and writers of African descent have attempted to reconcile the imperialist histories of museums with their reparative possibilities, among them being the museums role in producing and circulating antiracist counter-histories. The course will consider how museum practitioners of the African Diaspora have addressed issues such as object display, collecting, provenance, interpretation, conservation, organizational culture, and institutional architecture. At stake are the terms by which black historiographies are produced, sustained, and protected in the face of dominant myths around the value of black memory and cultural production.

MUSE 582

Supervised Internship in Museum and Exhibition Studies

4 hours. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. Previously listed as AH 582. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the Department. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s). Departmental Approval Required

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
43972PRARRANGEDQuinn, TMeet online at set times

MUSE 596

Readings in Museum and Exhibition Studies

0 TO 8 hours. Prerequisite(s): Consent of the instructor. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s). Departmental Approval Required

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
50395CNFARRANGEDMensah, LMeet online at set times
43973CNFARRANGEDARR2ONLQuinn, TMeet online at set times

MUSE 597

Project Research

0 TO 8 hours. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. May be repeated to a maximum of 8 hours. Previously listed as AH 597. Extensive computer use required. Prerequisite(s): Approval of the Department. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s).

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
43536CNF11:00 AM - 01:30 PMW1062HHMensah, LOn campus and online

MUSE 598

MUSE Thesis Research

0 TO 16 hours. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading only. May be repeated to a maximum of 8 hours. Restricted to Graduate College. Restricted to Museum and Exhibition Studies major(s).

CRNCourse TypeStart & End TimeMeeting DaysRoomBuilding CodeInstructorMeets BetweenInstructional Method
43537CNF11:00 AM - 01:30 PMW1062HHMensah, LOn campus and online