Teaching

This seminar engages first-year graduate students in professional development and training in areas key to academic success. I have taught an open, interdisciplinary section of GradFIRST as well as one specifically for students in the Museum Studies MA Program that has a special emphasis on building a community among the incoming student cohort and navigating the program. Seminar topics include time management, planning your graduate education and career roadmaps, getting the most out of graduate mentoring, and how to do archival research.

What are mountains, and what do they mean to people? In this interdisciplinary seminar we will explore the creation of mountains in the United States including their cultural, artistic, and literary meanings. From the Appalachians to the Sierra Nevada, we’ll study how mountains are geologically formed through tectonic forces as well as their social significance reflected in landscape painting, poetry, and literature. Mountains are physical landforms but also symbolic places. We’ll examine how mountains have shaped American ideas of nature, nationalism, and identity, and how different communities have interacted with mountain landscapes. Through readings, visual analysis, and discussion, we will explore mountains as both natural features and cultural constructs.

Introduction to Museum Studies is part of the core curriculum of the Museum Studies Certificate Program. This course provides a broad overview of the museum field, introducing students to the history of museums, current theories and contemporary issues, and the principles and practice of museum work. Through discussion, readings, written assignments, and on-campus field trips, students will examine different types of museums, responsibilities of staff, and the challenges and issues encountered in entering the field.