MFS GRADUATE PROGRAM - THESES AND PROJECTS
The culmination of a Museum and Field Studies student's program is the Master's thesis or project. The thesis may be of research, expository, critical or creative nature, and typically focuses on a more traditionally academic topic related to museum work. A project should be an original development of materials, procedures, programs, or other practical information relevant to the student's specialty discipline and intended for direct museum application.
For more information:
Please discuss whether you are interested in a thesis or project with your prospective advisor before applying to the program.
What Topics Do Students Study?
Following is a list of the Project and Thesis titles submitted to the graduate school over the past three years. An all-inclusive list of titles is available in the Museum and Field Studies office.
2008 Graduates
- Jess Anderson-Milhausen, Frozen Organic Artifacts, Museum Practice, and Community Archeology: An Example from Alaska's Wrangell St. Elias National Park (thesis)
- Katie Bowell, Art in the Ark: The Incorporation of Fine Art Installations into Live Animal Exhibits (project)
- Kathy Hollis, Using taphonomic disparity to understand preservation biases in the Western Interior Seaway: An example from the Pierre Shale (Upper Cretaceous) Mollusca, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Collection (thesis)
- Bethany Lewis, A Floristic Survey of the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex, North Park, Colorado and Laramie Plans, Wyoming (thesis)
- Sommer McGuire, Retelling the Hispano Story ~ An Exhibit Re-Design at the Colorado History Museum (project)
- Aspen Padilla, Faunal Description and Paleobiology of Eocene Sharks from Banks Island in the Canadian High Arctic (thesis)
- Katy Putsavage, Black and White ceramic mugs from the Southwestern US (thesis)
2007 Graduates
- Kristian Anderson, Generation Y-Not: A Look at Millennials and Museums (thesis)
- Eric Chapman, Curatorial Procedures for Anomalous Fossils: A Case Study of Unusual Cylindrical Casts from the Two Medicine Formation (Late Cretaceous of Montana) (thesis)
- Karen Lloyd, An Investigation and Comparison of the Late Eocene (Chadronian) Mammalian Fauna of High Plains and Montane Communities of Colorado (thesis)
- Kelli O'Leary, Museums Reaching Communities: A Case Study of the 2005 IMLS National Award Recipients (thesis)
- Pamela Regensburg, A Floristic Survey of the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, San Luis Valley, Colorado (thesis)
2006 Graduates
- Sarah Beggs, Community Connections (project)
- Rhea Gavounas, Visitor Perception and University Museum Websites (project)
- Lauren Golten, Creating a Library of Calls of Bats within the University of Colorado Museum, in the Service of Biodiversity Conservation (project)
- Mardy Harrold, A Field Guide to the Freshwater Mollusks of Colorado (project)
- Lindsay Jones, Gifts Given by the Creator: An Online Exhibition of Contemporary American Indian Art (thesis) (link)
- Heather McKeown, Study of a Greek Amphora at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (thesis)
- Roxana Raska, Analysis of an Ivory Work in the Colorado Collection (thesis)
- Samantha Sands, Expanding Educational Resources at the University of Colorado Museum: An Investigation of Local Outreach Programs (project)
- Amy Wilkinson, Continuing the Legacy: An Online Exhibit of the CU Museum's Southwestern Textile Collection (project)
