UW Master of Arts in Museology

10/02/2025

Have you seen the libraries on campus?! 🥰 Pro tip: check out the graduate reading room.

Our first-year students got the grand tour today, learning how they can access important services. Thank you so much !

09/23/2025

We hosted our second-year student orientation yesterday. It was so wonderful to see everyone and hear about their summer adventures.

We are looking forward to classes starting on Wednesday! Here’s to a great year learning together.

09/22/2025

This weekend Shin Yu Pai (class of 2009) generously gave her time for a curator’s talk for her exhibit Ten Thousand Things at for alumni. She shared the intricate stories of the objects included in the exhibit. The exhibit is in display until early next year, check it out!

Her podcast, Ten Thousand Things, which inspired the exhibit is available on streaming services.

Thank you !

09/20/2025

Yesterday we wrapped up orientation for our first-year students. It was a packed day: they met with their faculty mentors, learned about the student organization MUSER, and got a visit from Dean Dey.

We are so happy to welcome these new students to the Museology community!

03/21/2024

First-year students Grace Gousman, Amanda Rodgers, and Ginger McCormick interned with the Pacific Bonsai Museum and had a chance to show off their work this weekend! Congratulations!

03/08/2024

Get Inspired!

On International Women's Day, we want to give amazing recognition to a few of our alumni who graduated from the Museology program. Currently, these fantastic women are making amazing contributions to making museums more equitable and accessible to everyone.

Sena Dawes is a research analyst at Feeding America. She has worked on applying evaluation as a tool to visitor experience in museums. She is also an active member of the accessibility advocacy community, serving on various committees.

Steffi Morrison is the Collections Manager at the Wing Luke Museum. Her job is not exclusively dedicated to collecting and preparing objects for exhibitions, but also building and enhancing relationships with communities who are the heart of Wing Luke.

Aletheia Wittman is the co-founder of the incluseum, a project which offers inclusion in museums through critical dialogue, community building, and collaborative practices. She is currently working as the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Officer for the Washington State Historical Society.

02/22/2024

Museology alums Jessica Rubenacker '09 and Justice McNeeley '22 were interviewed as part of this powerful video series. Check out the videos on the Burke Museum website!

On Our Terms is a video project grounded in storytelling of commonly used DEAI terms like decolonization, consultation, and healing. See the full videos at burkemuseum.org/on-our-terms

Words like these regularly show up in mission statements, social media captions, and speeches, but it can be hard to parse the meaning or intention behind them. Instead of telling you what these words mean to us, we wanted to turn to our community to see how these concepts show up in their lives.

We interviewed 12 people about what 10 different words mean to them. What does decolonization look like? How has cultural erasure impacted your life? Where is the line between celebration and appropriation?

Through personal stories and unique perspectives, these videos present a nuanced collage of how people understand these words and invite viewers to reflect on their own definitions. We are incredibly grateful to all the participants who shared their stories, ideas, and time with us.

View all the videos at burkemuseum.org/on-our-terms

Quyana/Thank you,
Aaron McCanna and Timothy Kenney, Producers

06/12/2023

They did it! Congratulations to our graduates! 💜

It was so wonderful to celebrate the hard work of our students. A huge thank you to Nancy Salguero McKay of Highline Heritage Museum, our keynote speaker, and Jessica Rubenacker of Wing Luke Museum, our emcee. Your thoughtful, inspirational messages were the perfect way to send our graduates off to begin their careers.

06/01/2023

Museologists in Mission Control!

The students in our Public Programs class (instructed by Seth Margolis) tried their hands at a simulated space mission control experience at The Museum of Flight. The class has been learning about how to plan and run successful public programs all quarter and will be demonstrating their skill tonight at The Museum of Flightp; check it out!

05/08/2023

Second-year Museology student Ghada Elhaffar has been hard at work developing programming and a guide for the public art on our campus. Her work was featured by the Graduate School.

Congratulations, Ghada!

Art and culture have been a part of Ghada ElHaffar’s life from an early age. With her mother working in the cultural field in Bahrain, Ghada found herself frequently taking art classes. It wasn’t until she discovered art history that she found her true calling.