Introduction: Juilee Decker, Museum Studies

In terms of research and pedagogy, I look to collections (i.e., libraries, archives, and museums) as spaces that have potentiality as sites of digital scholarship and collaboration. I have worked in this way for more than a decade—this practice has been informed, very much, by my work in the field of public art (since 1998—I can tell you more!). At RIT, I have created four courses in museum studies and public history that are intended as spaces for collaborative engagement, self-assessment, public dissemination and....  

Note: all of the photographs below relate to projects undertaken by students in my course this past fall (2015).

Students installing an exhibition
in TWC, October 2015

3-D scan of Don Sottile's bust of
Kate Gleason (1865-1933), November 2015

Students examining objects they had formerly
only known via digital surrogates, December 2015

...in the Archives prospecting
for future projects, Dec. 2015

 
Hopes for this blog and our group: I am excited to share my practice and resources with you and to engage in conversations around project-based learning and problem-based learning. And, equally, I am thrilled by the prospect of learning from each of you—my amazing CLA colleagues—and to learning more about game-based learning, particularly, from Trent (no pressure!).

Related links: previous teaching practice in Kentucky, see here and here, with oral histories on this link. At RIT, Museum Studies sites are located here: 
--> research by seniors for thesis work, established Spring 2015, see here
--> project space, established Fall 2015, see here
--> websites created by my students in support of exhibit curated by MUSE faculty committee, see here and here 

Framing context:  [Note: I had included the frame/research background, originally, at the head of this post. Doing so made the space quite text heavy. So I relocated the text to the bottom of this post. Perhaps start reading here...]
My research over the past two decades has centered on place, as I introduced to the MURIT faculty on the Place Labinar blog that Andrea, Mindy, Roger, and I established in the Fall 2015 (check it out here!). My interest in the topic of place relates to the ways in which we construct place and in which place is constructed — physically as well as conceptually. Related to place, I am concerned, then with narrative. What narratives are invested in these sites? How do we visualize the narratives as well as the experiences at sites over time? How do we gain access to them? Who garners control over that? And what, ultimately, contributes to a site's context—and our context?