Museum Studies (Heritage Studies) University of Amsterdam

Overview

The Museum Studies (Heritage Studies) programme of the University of Amsterdam prepares you for a position in the wider field of the museum world by equipping you with the necessary cultural-historical research skills and professional training. You will gain first-hand experience during an intensive 5-month internship at a museum in The Netherlands or abroad. Students will arrange this internship themselves during the first semester under the guidance of a supervisor.

Museum Studies at the University of Amsterdam

• The museological world is constantly on the move. Important historical events are followed by major societal shifts. Museums reflect this by means of exhibitions, changes in acquisition policy and architectural innovation. At the same time, internationalisation and globalisation require constant repositioning. The UvA Master's programme in Museum Studies emphasises the public face of the museum: where the visitors enter and where the collections tell their stories. 

• Museums arrange their collections to reflect the story they wish to tell. This concept is based on scientific research into exhibits but is also linked to ideology and political, religious and economic power. The question of which stories are being told by which objects is constantly subject to change. Museum Studies investigates the dynamics and raisons d'être of heritage museums, such as those focusing on antiquities, archaeology, ethnology, and history and art museums. This is always done from a solid cultural-history basis and in an international context.

• Whether you would like to organise exhibitions, devise educational projects, create policy, conduct scholarly research or write journalistic reviews: it all starts with a solid basis of knowledge, creative thinking and a critical attitude. Alumni of the UvA Master's programme in Museum Studies are currently working as exhibition organisers, curators, educational employees, policy officers, project managers, academic researchers and directors.