AM9: Beyond the Basics of DEIB: From Conversations to Sustainable Change in Museums and Archives

About

This Working Group brings together museum studies faculty, researchers, and practitioners from archives and museums who seek practical ways to disrupt museum and archival practices and to expand access to them.

Open to New People

Active since: 2024

Syracuse University
Rochester Institute of Technology

Collaborative Goals

Our first event, held at RIT, welcomed Sierra Van Ryck DeGroot from the Met for a keynote about the joys and challenges of museum-based internships. Session two, in Syracuse, focused on the expectations and sustainability of museum internships, featuring a talk by Kionah Tucker, Education Coordinator at New-York Historical. Following each presentation, attendees participated in a structured discussion in a larger group before breaking into smaller groups for further ideation over lunch.

Building upon these two sessions, our third meeting (in April) will be focused on building a body of practical advice. With attention turned to advocacy and action, the group will work over the coming summer to create a ‘toolkit’ for best practices in the form of PDFs and/or interactive publications that identify practical solutions to diversifying the pipeline from education to employment in the field.

Our aim in the coming year is to use this toolkit to build a Humanities Corridor network of GLAM professionals, faculty, and students who are interested in advocating for and advancing DEIB by connecting the Emerging Museum Professionals Network based at SU (the only chapter in NY north of the City) with students in museum studies and similarly-framed academic degree programs in the Humanities Corridor region with working museum professionals and museum studies faculty.

Therefore, the continuing working group’s request for funding is centered on the dissemination of the internship toolkit through two launch events, one at Syracuse and one at RIT, as well as a collaborative presence (likely an exhibitor table) at the annual Museums Assoc. of NY (April '26). Through these venues, we hope to reach the widest range of institutions as possible. We believe this combination of activities will bring about a changing landscape born out of acknowledging the challenges inherent in many internships in museums and archives, moving toward a period of reflection and assessment in the future.