Public scholarship is a central tenet of the Museum Studies Program. Simply put, public scholarship means conducting research, teaching, and practice both with and for the public. Our faculty of public scholars serve museums and their communities in a special way. We build and sustain unique partnerships with individuals, groups, and institutions – from local grassroots organizations to world-wide indigenous communities – and craft collaborative projects that address the ideas, needs, and concerns of these partners. In this way, we work democratically to build the future of community-engaged museums.
Our scholarly products may look a bit different than those of other academics. While we do write books and peer-reviewed journal articles to advance knowledge and inform practice, we also share our scholarship through formats that are more broadly accessible to and valued by the public, such as exhibits, websites, community programs, evaluation data and reports, training materials, guidebooks, policy documents, feasibility reports, and inventories. In addition, we disseminate our research widely both within and without academia in order to further the discourse around civically-engaged scholarship and transformative teaching.
The Museum Studies Public Scholars collaborate with many wonderful community partners, including:
As a faculty, we are deeply committed to civic engagement as a way of teaching and learning and to producing scholarship that is relevant and accessible. For more details about our work, please visit the Faculty Scholarship page. For a closer look at one of our long-standing public scholarship initiatives, please visit the Humanities Action Lab page.
Dr. Holly Cusack-McVeigh and a student care for objects with the FBI Art Crime Team.
Dr. Laura Holzman and students install an exhibit at the Central Library in downtown Indianapolis.
Students and Wayne County Historical Museum board members collaborate on a strategic plan.
