Re: Careers in Anthropology??

sgf (sfolse@odin.cair.du.edu)
20 Sep 1996 04:07:29 GMT

In article <Dxvtvq.66w@midway.uchicago.edu>,
MoonRat <uri2@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>In article <51nmgu$qvs@ns2.spectra.net>,
>allen lutins <alleycat@spectra.net> wrote:

>Sigh, i went into Cultural Anthro, what hope is there for me?
>To be more specific, what opportunities exsist for cultural anthro
>students to find jobs in museums? Also, what are the different jobs
>avainlable at your average, oh, say natural history, or history museum?

Speaking as someone with an Anthro BA and by the end of this quarter an
MA in Anthro with a concentration in Museum Studies -- to get a job in a
museum with just a degree in Anthro and no museum experience won't
happen. With a degree in Anthro and lotsa internships/volunteer work,
it's possible. A PhD in Anthro might come in handy when looking for a
curatorial job (a great number of museums won't hire curators without a
PhD in the area they'd be curating), but you'd still *have* to have some
sort of museum experience. If you want to start looking into the
possibility of museum work, you might want to check out
bit.listserv.museum-l, which is the USENET echo of the MUSEUM-L mailing
list, to get an idea of the current topics and interests in the field
(I'd give you the listserv address, but I don't have it handy).

If you want to *do* anthropology, the museum world probably will not give
you many opportunities -- sure, people say they want to be curators to do
research on the collections, but in reality about 95% of the curator's
time is taken up with other stuff.

A quick list of jobs in the field:

Curator -- usually administers a collection, (supposedly) does research

Collections Manager -- manages the day-to-day aspects of the collection:
inventory, storage, moving them, pest control, and so forth

Registrar -- handles the more paper-oriented aspects of the collection:
insurance, shipping, tracking object movements (although 90% of
*everyone's* job is paperwork)

Director -- Administration. Hand shaking to raise money. Public
representative of the museum

Educator -- usually responsible for designing educational programs,
sometimes administers the educational collections

Exhibit Designer -- Designs & constructs exhibit futniture & lighting

You'll notice that a lot of the positions seem to overlap; sometimes
they're interchangeable, and sometimes a small museum will stuff several
jobs into one title. I have a friend who is the Director of a historic
house in Golden, Colorado, but she is the only employee and so she's also
every single one of the jobs listed above as well as secretay and janitor.

I just got a job (yes! it sometimes happens!) as an Assistant Curator at
a small museum, but if you read the description of my job you'll see that
I'm basically a Collections Manager.

Anyway, you need experience in museums to get a job in a museum, but the
good part is that you can get that experience through volunteering --
most museums desparately need warm bodies and willing hands, and it is
quite common for a good volunteer to be offered a job when one opens up,
since the person has been working there already and knows how to do the job.

--Stephanie
Assistant Curator (as of October 8)
W.H. Over Museum
Vermillion, SD

-- 

(http://www.du.edu/~sfolse)           Thomas said:

> (oh, REMIND ME FREQUENTLY about your exhibit, as the days go by, please.)

          so this is for him (everyone else can ignore at will):

      Opening Reception:   Friday, Sept 27, DUMA Gallery, 5:00--7:00