Teaching Museum Studies in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries, or, A Tale of Two Courses

This article uses the lens of teaching museum studies to analyze how museums have changed over a nineteen-year period and how university-based teaching has and might continue to respond to these changes. I compare my current class at Penn State Harrisburg to the one I taught from 1996 to 1999 at George Washington University, focusing on changes in museum audience engagement, technology, and pedagogy. Specific content, as well as activities inside and outside of the classroom, were adapted to the needs of varied student bodies and locales to prepare students to participate in the future of history museums.