Specialism: Public Participation in Museums and Archaeology - ARC00108H

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Module summary

This module brings together the academic study of volunteering and participatory practices in museums and archaeology. How do museum and archaeological publics work together with volunteers and communities and why are approaches such as crowdsourcing or co-production and co-curation becoming more popular? What do professionals and publics get out of working in partnership and what makes different publics choose whether to take part or not? We will also explore how archaeology and museums have become more professionalised and specialised over time and how this has impacted opportunities for publics to get involved.

Related modules

A directed option - students must pick a specialism module and have a choice of which to take

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2026-27

Module aims

3rd year specialism modules focus upon the archaeology of a well defined time, space or theme and the modules seek to allow students, in small groups to focus upon primary source material and to apply to it the theoretical and thematic perspectives learned over your first and second years. The aim is to facilitate the acquisition of deeper knowledge of one aspect of the past than has been possible in more general courses.

Specifically this module aims:

• To examine the scholarly approaches to and range of evidence for public participation in museums and archaeology
• To evaluate and critique different examples of participatory practices and volunteering in the museum and archaeological sectors
• To develop research, analytical and communication skills.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• demonstrate a broad and comparative knowledge of public participation in museum and archaeological contexts
• critically discuss and assess the key theories, methods and debates, and their limitations
• critically evaluate primary data and evidence
• communicate an in-depth, logical and structured argument, supported by scholarly evidence

Module content

We will begin the module by tracing how we got to where professional practice in museums and archaeology is today - focusing on the professionalisation of both sectors in the late 20th Century and how these processes changed relationships between museums, archaeology and publics. From this foundation, we will explore practical examples in both archaeology and museums of how professionals try to involve more people in archaeological and museum work. We will consider what we think the division of roles and responsibilities between professionals and communities should be in the heritage sector and explore why some people may not want to get involved.

Throughout the module, we will be engaging with different critiques of participatory practices in the heritage sector, understanding the underlying tensions that have led some participants, heritage professionals and academics to question the ways in which participation in museums and archaeology has been facilitated. We will consider some of the complexities of inviting participation from marginalised and vulnerable groups and the need to provide support for participants and staff working on emotionally difficult topics. The module will prepare students to engage critically with participatory initiatives in the heritage sector and provide a foundation for students to develop the skills to effectively design and facilitate different forms of participation and collaboration in their future careers.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Module feedback

Formative: oral feedback from module leaders in class

Summative: written feedback within the University's turnaround policy

Indicative reading

• Simon, N. (2010) The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz: Museum 2.0: http://www.participatorymuseum.org/read/
• Edmundson, A. and Haviland, M. (eds.) (2025) Collaboration and Co-Creation in Museums, Heritage, and the Arts. London and New York: Routledge.
• Thomas, S. and Lea, J. (eds.) (2014) Public Participation in Archaeology. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.