- Degree handbook: open»
This degree comprises three 15 credit core courses, one 30 credit core course, two 15 credits option courses, a dissertation and placement, each of which is described in greater detail below. Teaching for this degree is primarily by lectures, seminars, practical workshops and museum visits.
All students are required to take the following:
- The museum: critical perspectives (ARCLG064, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Managing museums (ARCLG065, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Collections management and care (ARCLG148, 30 credits, 11 weeks)
- Museum communication (ARCLG190, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
Students also choose two further 15 credit courses from the following list (other options may also be available):
- Antiquities and the law (ARCLG185, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Archaeology and education (ARCLG186, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Collections curatorship (ARCLG192, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Conservation in practice: Preventive conservation (ARCLG140, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Cultural heritage and development (ARCLG209, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Cultural Memory (ARCLG175, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Exhibition project (ARCLG191, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Issues in conservation: Context of conservation (ARCLG141, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Issues in conservation: Understanding objects (ARCLG142, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
- Oral History: From Creation to Curation (INSTG058, 15 credits, 11 weeks)
(60 credits) - Students are required to research and write a dissertation (10,000 words) on a museological topic. Students will be assigned a supervisor to guide the main stages of the work.
Examples of recent projects include:
- The museum on display: exploring changing attitudes to museum architecture at the V&A
- Memorial museums and the representation of genocide
- Rethinking 'Zulu' material culture in the British Museum's collections
- Digital technologies and museum communication
- Artists-in-residence, artist-curators and the reinterpretation of museum collections
- The National Mall in Washington DC and post-assimilationist US identity
- Historical house museums: representing history, evoking memory
- The art of museum diplomacy: the Singapore-France cultural collaboration in perspective
(15 credits) - Students are required to undertake a 20 days' work in a museum (or similar institution). This usually takes place one day per week during term-time, although other arrangements may be possible. Students write an assessed 2,500 word report at the end of the placement reflecting on their experience.
Recent placements have included: Brent Museum, the British Museum, Croydon Museum, Event Communications, the Freud Museum, Hackney Museum, London Transport Museum, the Museum of London, RAF Museums, the Royal Academy, Royal Botanical Gardens, Royal Historical Palaces, St Paul's Cathedral, Tate Britain, UCL Museums & Collections.