Primary Sources: Museum Studies Praxis Seminar

Monique Scott
Director of Museum Studies

Course: HART 316
Museum Studies Praxis Seminar

Among the new seminars designed for students undertaking internships on and off campus, one of the most exciting is the Museum Studies Praxis Seminar. Biweekly, it brings together students interning in Philadelphia museums and in Special Collections for group discussion about their internship experiences and museological theory. Students benefit from one another’s technical and institutional experiences, learn about other opportunities, share ideas, and build collaborations with peers working across different sites.

Student interns engage in a range of activities: conducting conservation work at the Penn Museum, managing public programs at the African American Museum, or working on exhibition catalogs at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Many intern in our own Special Collections, where they help organize exhibitions, develop exhibition-related programs, research Bryn Mawr traditions in the archives, and learn conservation techniques involved in collection storage.

In class, students share reflections to connect their hands-on work with their academic experiences and to build a network of peers who share an interest in the work of museums, galleries, and archives.