Museum and Field Studies

Museum courses listed in this catalog may be taken with the approval of the student’s major department and the course instructor, although no undergraduate major is offered in museum studies. A graduate professional certificate in Museum and Field Studies is offered to graduate students in other disciplines.  

Graduate training in anthropology, art history, history, botany, entomology, paleontology, and zoology is provided under the direction of museum faculty in cooperation with cognate departments and the museum and field studies program. Areas of study include, but are not limited to:

  • anthropological interpretation
  • diatom taxonomy, systematics, and ecology
  • southwestern archaeology and ethnology
  • plant taxonomy, evolution, and phyto­geography
  • vertebrate paleontology and Cenozoic stratigraphy
  • biology of aquatic invertebrates
  • systematics and population biology of insects of the Rocky Mountain Region
  • plant–insect interactions

Museum assistantships include support from the Walker Van Riper fund and research support from the Collie and William Henry Burt museum funds. Other financial assistance is available to selected students. Students interested in working toward advanced degrees under the direction of museum faculty should write the University of Colorado Museum, Museum and Field Studies, University of Colorado Boulder, 218 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0218, e-mail mfsinfo@colo­rado.edu, or visit cumuseum.colorado.edu/MFS.

Course code for this program is MUSM.

Graduate Degree Program(s)

Master's Degree in Museum and Field Studies

The University Museum offers a program leading to the degree of Master of Science, Museum and Field Studies. Please see Interdisciplinary Programs in the Graduate School section.

Applicants accepted for graduate work by museum faculty must be admitted to the Graduate School.