2025-2026

Museum Studies, Minor

Department of Comparative Cultural Studies

College of Arts and Letters

Do you love museums? Have you imagined a future in cultural heritage preservation, collection, or exhibition? This minor offers students the opportunity to explore careers in a quickly expanding and exciting field. Courses include the fundamentals of museum theory and practice, contemporary issues facing cultural heritage institutions, and hands-on real-world experiences through internships and practice-based classes on curation, digital storytelling, collections management, and more.

  • A minor is earned in conjunction with a bachelor's degree.

    To receive a minor (18 - 24 units) at Northern Arizona University, you must complete a planned group of courses from one or more subject matter areas with a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0. At least 12 units of the minor must be unique to that minor and not applied to any other minor.

In addition to University Requirements:

  • Complete individual plan requirements.

Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.

No more than fifty percent of the units used to satisfy minor requirements may be used to satisfy major requirements.

Minimum Units for Completion 18
Major GPA C
Research Optional

Purpose Statement
 
The purpose of the MST minor is to give students foundational knowledge and professional skills for graduate programs and careers in fields that focus on access to information across physical and digital collections such as museums, archives, libraries, cultural heritage sites, and nonprofit organizations. Museum Studies is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field encompassing museum theory and scholarly research and practice. The field foregrounds skills of analysis, critical thinking, interpretation, and communication for a wide range of audiences. Lower-division courses introduce students to museums as centers of making meaning through the preservation and sharing of works of cultural production. Students will apply museum studies theory and gain experience in data management, collection development, and curation in upper-division courses, which offer critical approaches to curation with experiential learning in exhibition design and through internship experiences.

 
Student Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the history and functions of various types of cultural institutions dedicated to the preservation, display, and interpretation of cultural heritage, such as museums, archives, libraries, historic sites, etc.
  • Understand key areas of practices in cultural heritage organizations including curation, collections management, cultural property legislation, visitor studies, archives management, conservation and preservation, collection and exhibition ethics, audience development, application of new technologies, and archives management.
  • Key features of professionalism cultural heritage organizations, including professional standards and ethics, professional societies and organizations, and career development resources.

Minor Requirements
Additional Information

  • Some courses may have prerequisites. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.