To fulfill requirements for non-thesis master's students who need to complete final degree requirements other than coursework during their last semester. This may include such things as a comprehensive examination, oral examination, or foreign language requirement. Students are required to be registered during the semester they graduate.

This course provides an overview of museums, the museum profession, and the field of museum studies. Students learn the defining characteristics of different types of museums, how museums have evolved over time, how museums have dealt with subjects that have proven controversial, and recent trends towards greater inclusiveness and respect for other cultures.

This course examines the intellectual, physical, legal, financial, social, and ethical challenges of preserving and providing access to museum collections. Through lectures, readings, hands-on activities, and field trips, students explore the theory and practice of collections management and learn how to utilize available resources for collections care in any museum regardless of size.

This course examines both directed/formal education and free-choice/informal learning opportunities in museums and how we effectively serve learners of all ages and learning style. An in-depth consideration of the development of programs includes assessment and needs of target audiences, presentation techniques and content selection and organization, logistics, and implementation and evaluation.

This course provides an overview of museum and non-profit administration issues, including governance, working with a board of trustees, budgetary planning, fund raising, accreditation by the American Association of Museums, and museum ethics. Students gain practical experience in writing grants and preparing a conference-level presentation covering a museum administration issue.

This course provides hands-on experience in researching, creating, and executing strategies in advertising, public relations, marketing, and development/fundraising. Students explore the development of outreach techniques in the United States and create a finished marketing plan for a museum/archive/library partner institution as part of the course.

Investigation of ethical issues in cultural institutions. All aspects of professional practice in museums, libraries, and archives are examined, including collections management, personnel, and interpretation and exhibition. Cultural patrimony and the repatriation of collections such as Nazi-looted art or Native American collections are also examined.

This course examines historic preservation, and the parallel development of historic house museums and historic villages, from early patriotic and volunteer-based efforts such as Mount Vernon, to the development of preservation professionals at Colonial Williamsburg and elsewhere, and ultimately to modern preservation organizations and preservation law as found at the national, state, and local levels.

Introduction to the intellectual and physical organization of archival materials in all media and formats. Students examine the core principles and standards underlying the processes of arrangement and description and their application to different types of archival collections. Students put archival theory into practice, processing a small archival collection.

This course examines the evolution of technology in archives and museums with an emphasis on digitization, cataloging, metadata generation, and creation of contextual information. Students create a new, online-accessible digital collection derived from archival resources using technology resources of the Riley Digitization Center in the University Library system.

Specialized topics in Museum Studies not covered in other museum studies courses. This course may be repeated twice under different topics for a maximum of 9 hours.

The material remains of the past provide a window into American social, cultural, and political life. Students will learn to interpret museum objects through study of the artifacts themselves through related artifacts and landscapes, and through other forms of evidence that expose their deeper meanings, including probate inventories, letters, diaries, newspapers, books, and maps.

This course examines American decorative arts from the seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century, particularly furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, textiles, prints, and paintings, with emphasis on the perspectives of maker and user, the influence of Britain and other cultures, differences among regions, differences between urban and rural, and differences over time.

This course considers the public dimension of exhibit design, the needs and interests of varied audiences, different learning styles, and the best interpretive approaches. Classroom theory is combined with in-the-field application, with a particular focus on exhibit planning, teamwork and management, design elements, lighting, interpretation of objects and ideas, labels, and evaluation.

This course emphasizes the leadership qualities needed to be successful in today's dynamic museum field. The class will explore the "foreign language" of budgets and finances, explore fundraising and strategic grantsmanship, examine the importance of corporate culture, and study models and museum case studies to better understand the importance of leadership in an administrator’s success.

Students identify an individual research project related to the student's area of interest. Students formulate project objectives, develop working parameters, construct a project design, and demonstrate an ability to complete a project and describe project results. Maximum six semester hours.

Supervised professional work in a museum or related organization.

Supervised preparation of a professional project, with six semester hours required for graduation.

Supervised preparation of the master's thesis, with six semester hours required for graduation.