Museum Studies for a Post-Pandemic World demonstrates that digital literacy, creativity, and resilience, as the COVID-19 pandemic has so vividly illustrated, are now vital components of the classroom and of the curator’s toolbox.
Museum studies students are increasingly asked to engage with new team dynamics and collaborative models, often relocated to the virtual world. Authored by academics, cultural heritage partners, students, and alumni, the chapters in this volume move beyond a consideration of the impact of digitisation to envision new strategies and pedagogies for fuller, more sustainable approaches to cultural literacy, exhibition, and visitor engagement. International case studies present models of collaborative practices between teams of diverse sizes and professional backgrounds. The volume demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the use of a variety of pedagogically and culturally significant hybrid and virtual models that provide innovative learning modalities to meet the needs of future generations of digital native patrons. This book offers meaningful strategies that will help academic and cultural heritage institutions engaged in museum studies to survive — and even thrive — in the face of future disasters by expanding programme accessibility beyond the physical confines of their buildings.
Museum Studies for a Post-Pandemic World will be of interest to students and researchers engaged in the study of museums, the arts, cultural management, and education. It should also be of interest to museum practitioners around the world.
INTRODUCTION: Adaptative, Collaborative, Interdisciplinary, and Inclusive Online and Hybrid Strategies to Inspire the Post-Pandemic Museum Studies Classroom; PART I – WHY WE GATHER: CONNECTING AND SHARING; 1. Belonging and Being Human: Developing a Framework to Teach Museum and Heritage Studies Online During a Crisis and Beyond; 2. Gathering Online: A Collaborative Project with Graduate Museum Education Students During COVID-19; 3. Museum Studies in Our Own Backyard: We Have an App for That!; PART II – PIVOTING OUR PEDAGOGICAL SKILLS TO AFFECT CHANGE; 4. Remote Internships During Intersecting Pandemics: Recognizing the Significance of Social and Emotional Learning for Adults; 5. Lessons Learned from a Pandemic: How COVID-19 and the Racial Justice Crisis Impacted University of San Francisco’s Social Justice-Focused Museum Studies Curricula; 6. The Next Evolution of Museum Studies: Museum Master Classes in Augmented and Virtual Reality; 7. Perspectives on Virtual Internship Programming from a Collegiate Museum Practices Programme, Host Museum, and Post-Graduates; PART III – CREATIVE TENSIONS: BRIDGING THE ACADEMIC-WORKFORCE GAP; 8. Redefining the Museum Placement in a Post-pandemic World: Challenges and Opportunities Presented by the Virtual Model; 9. Digital Storytelling and Digital Skills in Museums; 10. Immersive Digital Learning: Transforming an Onsite Simulation into a Powerful Virtual Learning Experience; 11. Collaborative Conservation E-Course Across Borders: Interpretation and Presentation of an Uncomfortable Heritage Site in Berlin; PART IV – THE IMPACT OF SPACE AND ARCHITECTURE IN TRANSFORMING MUSEUM STUDIES; 12. Mapping Memories and Making Meaning: Community-Engaged Heritage Studies and Research; 13. Re-Imagining Museums from the Screen: The Challenges and Opportunities of Pandemic Learning; 14. From Streets, to Galleries, to Internet: Defining “Contemporary Museum Space” in Chinese Art Exhibitions Pre- and Post-Pandemic; CONCLUSION: Ready for Change: The New Resilient Cultural Heritage Professional in the Post-Pandemic Era
Leda Cempellin (Research Doctor, Università degli studi di Parma) is a Professor of Art History, Coordinator of Museum Studies minor, and current Associate Director of the School of Design at South Dakota State University. She published The Ideas, Identity and Art of Daniel Spoerri with Vernon Press (2017). Pat Crawford is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and the Director of the School of Design at South Dakota State University. She earned her Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Kansas State University and her PhD in Environmental Design and Planning from Arizona State University. She co-authored several APLU reports on employability skills for the series From Academia to the Workforce.
