Museums, Archives, and Public History
Eleanor Townsley, Nexus director
Katie Walker, coordinator
108 Daniel L. Jones Building
413-538-3010
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/academics/find-your-program/museums-archives-and-public-history
Overview and Contact Information
The Nexus in Museums, Archives, and Public History allows students to explore careers which draw specifically on capacities developed in the study of the humanities. These fields require multiple literacies: professionals must be fluent in understanding, analyzing, and communicating about visual artifacts, material culture/objects, historical landscapes, and digital sources. Additionally, students will take four credits of pre- and post-internship courses that facilitate thoughtful engagement with the internship opportunity. While the Nexus certificate requires one internship, a concentration in museums, archives, and public history depends upon internships as a component of professional training, so students undertaking the Nexus should explore a succession of internships at Mount Holyoke and elsewhere in a way that will allow them to develop a significant set of skills.
Faculty
This area of study is administered by the following Nexus track chairs:
Desmond Fitz-Gibbon, Associate Professor of History, On Leave 2025-2026
Anna Maria Hong, Associate Professor of English, Teaching Fall Only
Sabra Thorner, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Requirements for the Nexus
A minimum of 18 credits:
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Four courses chosen from the list of courses approved for this Nexus or selected with approval of the track chair | 16 | |
At least one course at the 300 level | ||
At least one course at the 200 level or above | ||
One course at the 100 level or above 1 | ||
| A substantive summer internship 2 | ||
| COLL-211 | Reflecting Back: Connecting Internship and Research to Your Liberal Arts Education | 2 |
| A presentation at LEAP Symposium | ||
| Total Credits | 18 | |
- 1
Only one course at the 100 level is permitted to count toward the Nexus.
- 2
The summer internship must meet College requirements for a substantial educational experience: At least 200 work hours and responsibilities that exercise ability to think analytically and creatively, and contribute meaningfully to the organization’s stated mission and complements the student's area of focus.
Additional Specifications
-
Nexus students will develop a brief proposal outlining their specific area of focus including a course outline. Students will schedule an advising meeting with a track chair to get approval and complete an online Plan of Study form to be returned to the Nexus Program office.
- The sequence of a Nexus is part of what makes it unique:
-
In preparation for the summer internship or research, students complete courses chosen in consultation with the track chair. If seeking funding through LYNK UAF, students will additionally complete orientation and advising, and online training.
- COLL-211 is taken after the internship or research project and culminates in a presentation at LEAP Symposium.
-
Courses Counting toward the Nexus
This is a list of courses with a concentration on collections or archives. Depending upon students’ individual interests, they can select other courses than those listed below in consultation with the Nexus track chair.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropology | ||
| ANTHR-314 | Science, Feminism, and Mount Holyoke | 4 |
| ANTHR-316DM | Special Topics in Anthropology: 'Decolonizing Museums' | 4 |
| Art History | ||
| ARTH-242 | History of Photography: The First Hundred Years | 4 |
| ARTH-246 | Photography As Art | 4 |
| English | ||
| ENGL-323 | Gender and Class in the Victorian Novel | 4 |
| ENGL-361AR | Advanced Creative Writing Topics: 'Creative Writing from the Archives' | 4 |
| ENGL-361CV | Advanced Creative Writing Topics: 'Canny Valley: Writing from Art and Archives' | 4 |
| ENGL-362 | Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group | 4 |
| Film Media Theater | ||
| FMT-102 | Introduction to Film Studies | 4 |
| FMT-104 | Introduction to Media Studies | 4 |
| FMT-230HP | Intermediate Courses in History and Theory: 'Histories of Performance I' | 4 |
| First-Year Seminars | ||
| FYSEM-110FA | Fashion, Style and Design | 4 |
| Geology | ||
| GEOL-201 | Rocks and Minerals | 4 |
| Gender Studies | ||
| GNDST-204CP | Women and Gender in the Study of Culture: 'Trap Doors and Glittering Closets: Queer/Trans* of Color Visual Cultures of Resistance' | 4 |
| GNDST-241HP | Women and Gender in Science: 'Feminist Health Politics' | 4 |
| GNDST-333GS | Advanced Seminar: 'Gender and Sexual Minority Health' | 4 |
| GNDST-333SS | Advanced Seminar: 'Gender and Class in the Victorian Novel' | 4 |
| German Studies | ||
| GRMST-327 | Mayhem Under Nazi Rule: Who Whom, Why and How? | 4 |
| History | ||
| HIST-142 | Introduction to Pre Colonial African History | 4 |
| HIST-240 | The Holocaust in History | 4 |
| HIST-247 | Mountains and Modernity | 4 |
| HIST-252 | History of Money | 4 |
| HIST-259 | Mary Lyon's World and the History of Mount Holyoke | 4 |
| HIST-275CH | Topics in Native American and Indigenous Studies: 'Duyukdv: Cherokee Studies' | 4 |
| HIST-279 | Modern Civil Rights Movement | 4 |
| HIST-281 | African American History, Precolonial to Emancipation | 4 |
| HIST-282 | African American History from Emancipation to the Present | 4 |
| HIST-327 | Mayhem Under Nazi Rule: Who Whom, Why and How? | 4 |
| HIST-372 | Material Cultures of Turtle Island/North America | 4 |
| Jewish Studies | ||
| JWST-350MA | Special Topics in Jewish Studies: 'Mayhem Under Nazi Rule: Who Whom, Why and How?' | 4 |
| Politics | ||
| POLIT-233 | Introduction to Feminist Theory | 4 |
| POLIT-255PA | Gender and Power in Global Contexts: 'The Politics of Abortion in the Americas' | 4 |
| Psychology | ||
| PSYCH-319GS | Seminar in Social Psychology: 'Gender and Sexual Minority Health' | 4 |
