Graduate Certificate in Museum Practice

Wayne State's Graduate Certificate in Museum Practice prepares graduates with broad critical knowledge and essential skills relating to different facets of museum operations.

The certificate program unites history, theory and practical learning in a curriculum that lays the groundwork for professional careers in museums and other cultural and heritage institutions. The program is available to students interested in complementing their discipline-based work in master's or doctoral programs across the university, as well as emerging museum professionals and others who wish to pursue it as a free-standing credential.

About the program

The graduate certificate program meets an important local, regional and national need by providing students with critical knowledge in various facets of museum operations and practical experience that will help them to enter this burgeoning and culturally rewarding area of employment.

The 12-credit hour curriculum purposefully packages a set of two required and two elective courses that together introduce and build upon a set of core museum-related competencies, including collections management skills, artifact analysis, exhibition design, museum education, grant-writing and public engagement.

• Curriculum

  Students must complete 12 graduate-level credits in no more than three years, including two required courses: ANT 5600 Museum Studies (offered annually in fall semester) and ANT 7422 Museum Practicum (offered annually in spring/summer semester). Students will also select two electives from a list of course options in anthropology and allied fields; one of the elective courses must be at the 7000 level.

  The electives are bundled into five different areas of museum practice designed to provide students the flexibility and opportunity to gain greater expertise in the specific area of museum work in which they are most interested. Students have the option of pursuing a track or creating their own coursework plan in consultation with the Certificate Director, Dr. Andrew Maske.

  Current graduate students at Wayne State may be able to count up to nine credits from the graduate certificate toward the coursework requirements for their degree. Such arrangements should be considered in consultation with the student's director of graduate studies.

• Financial aid

  Currently, there is no financial support associated with the Graduate Certificate in Museum Practice. However, graduate students who receive funding as part of a Wayne State graduate degree program may apply that funding toward certificate courses.

Contact

• Dr. Andrew Maske, program director
• Dr. Julie Lesnik Interim Director of Graduate Studies