Special Opportunities in Museum Studies. There are many special opportunities for museum studies training here at the University of South Carolina. Students in the museums track generally choose to complete the Certificate in Museum Management offered through the McKissick Museum here on campus. We enjoy close cooperation with this program and have structured our requirements so that its courses also apply toward our Master of Arts. The Certificate in Museum Management curriculum provides training in professional museum standards and practices; periodic special offerings introduce students to concentrated study in such areas as museum education and exhibition development.

            We enjoy strong working relationships with our region's museum community, including the South Carolina State Museum, the Columbia Museum of Art, the university's McKissick Museum, and the Historic Columbia Foundation, which operates four historic house museums. Students may also do internships or develop thesis projects through the historic sites administered by the state's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, the National Trust property Drayton Hall, the Charleston Museum, and others in the state and region. Our students routinely attend the annual meetings of the South Carolina Federation of Museums and the Southeastern Museums Conference, and we are able to partially support their attendance at professional meetings through a designated travel endowment.

            Material Culture Studies. Another strength of the museum studies concentration is its emphasis on material culture studies. Students in the museums track are encouraged to develop theses with a material-culture emphasis. There is no shortage of interesting, original topics waiting to be studied using the collections of the region's museums and the built environment, historic landscapes, and cultural artifacts in the field. Our students are often involved in the McKissick's ground-breaking exhibitions of Southern folk material culture. Participation in the Summer Institute at MESDA also offers excellent hands-on training using one of the finest collections in the United States.