Minor Museum Studies

The BA minor in Museum Studies is the first of its kind in Germany to be taught entirely in English. Embedded in an international network, the minor is organized by professors with extensive experience in and with cultural institutions, including MARKK in Hamburg, Städel in Frankfurt, Brücke Museum in Berlin, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among the instructors are professors Timon Beyes, Sven Kramer, Susanne Leeb, Lynn Rother, Beate Söntgen, and the incoming assistant professor for Transcultural Art History. Some seminars are organized at and with partners from the cultural heritage and exhibition sector, primarily in Berlin and Hamburg. 

The program focuses not only on art museums but also other kinds of museums and heritage sites. It takes a critical and interdisciplinary approach, which it shares with the Leuphana Cultural Studies program as a whole. The artistic project space, the Kunstraum, is an important and distinctive component of Leuphana University. It hosts numerous events and seminars within the Cultural Studies major and the Complementary Studies program, providing students the opportunity to collaborate with artists and curators. 

The English language minor in Museum Studies complements the new English language Culture, Organization and the Arts major, as well as the German language major in Cultural Studies (this major allows students to specialize in the following fields: Cultural and Social Theory; Art and Visual Culture; Cultural Organization and Society; Literary Cultures; Media Studies; Music and Auditive Cultures or the History of Knowledge elective), Studium Individuale, or a major in Economics, Business Administration,or Law. 

In the minor, you first acquire the basis for understanding the multi-faceted relationship between different types of museums — e.g., ethnological, historical, natural history, fine arts — and the particular items they collect and exhibit. As places where cultural values are expressed, experienced, and negotiated, museums are pivotal for understanding cultural organization, a topic you will study in the third semester. Exhibitions play a central role in communicating culture and knowledge to various audiences and are, therefore, the subject of another more practice-oriented module. Theories, histories, and concepts related to the transcultural, to heritage and memory or to provenance and restitution complete the program to understand current challenges and discourses on museums, culture, and society.

The minor in Museum Studies is embedded in Leuphana’s interdisciplinary College study model made up of the  Leuphana Semester, a Major, and Complementary Studies. You start your Bachelor studies with the Leuphana Semester where you learn about the fundamentals of knowledge production and university life. The minor supplements your BA major. In Complementary Studies, you can pursue your thirst for knowledge through individualized study by immersing yourself in a different field of knowledge each semester.

Leuphana Semester

• Responsibility and Sustainability
• Humanities
• Methods I
• Methods II: Disciplinary Methods
• Introduction to the Discipline (the content of your major)

2. Semester

• Introducing Artifacts, Objects and Museums
• 4 major modules
• 1 Complementary Studies module

3. Semester

• The Museum as Organization and Institution
• 4 major modules
• 1 Complementary Studies module

4. Semester

• Concepts and Practices of Exhibiting
• Theories and Practices of Memory and Heritage
• 3 major modules
• 1 Complementary Studies module

5. Semester

• Transcultural Histories and Theories of Museums
• Concepts and Practices of Collecting, Provenance and Restitution
• 3 major modules
• 1 Complementary Studies module

6. Semester

• Bachelor dissertation
• 1 major module
• 2 Complementary Studies modules

The Bachelor’s degree represents a first professional qualification. Graduates can work in the following areas, for example: 

• Curatorial, educational, communication, and similar departments in museums, memorial sites, or other cultural heritage and pedagogical institutions;
• Foundations and NGOs with funding priorities and programs in the field of art and culture;
• Media, press and publishers with a focus on cultural and humanities topics;
• Art associations, auction houses, art galleries;
• Cultural tourism offices or companies.

A completed Bachelor’s degree is also a prerequisite for admission to a Master’s degree. Graduates with a BA Museum Studies minor will be eligible for MA programs in Museum Studies and Cultural Studies as well as in areas including Art History, History, Memory Studies, Literature or Provenance Studies - depending on your Major. Graduates may well be interested in the Leuphana Cultural Studies MA programs in Cultural Studies: Culture and Organization (in English) or in Critical Studies: Arts, Theory, History (in German).

Final degree: the minor in Museum Studies can only be studied in combination with a major
Admission restriction: no
Study places: 35
Teaching and examination language: English

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Information material

Learn more about the interdisciplinary college study model. Order information material

Student counselling service

Clarify your questions in a personal conversation during the Open Advisory Service. You can take advantage of digital counselling at short notice without registering. The College study advisors will be happy to help you:

• Wednesdays from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. (in person on campus)
• Thursdays from 4-6 p.m. (digitally via Zoom)

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