Degree approved under Art. 54 of the Teaching Career Statute (Decree-Law no. 15/2007, of 19/01), regulated by Ordinance no. 334/2008, of 30/04, for the group 200 (Portuguese and Social Studies/History) and 400 (History). (Order of His Excellency the Secretary of State of Education, June 21st 2009).

The Museology PhD programme at the Faculty of Arts - University of Porto is a research training programme at international level. The PhD Programme is offered in partnership with the Fine Arts Faculty enhancing multidisciplinarity as well as the profitability and quality in the use of technical means.The mission of the Museology Ph.D. program is to educate students to do innovative, rigorous scientific research on topics developed by the different interdisciplinary research lines. 

Our mission statement relies on the mission of the University of Porto

http://sigarra.up.pt/up/en/WEB_BASE.GERA_PAGINA?p_pagina=18374

The pioneering character of this PhD was highlighted in the review carried out by A3ES - Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education during 2013:

• Relatório preliminar da CAE
• Decisão de Conselho de Administração

This Ph.D Programme in Museology is shared by the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto. University of Porto is the largest producer of Science in Portugal, accounting for over 23% of the annually indexed in ISI Web of Science Portuguese scientific articles. It is comprised of 14 Faculties and Business School, offering an exceptional variety of courses covering all levels of higher education and all the major areas of knowledge. There are more than 600 training programs that welcome more than 31,000 students and 2,300 docents and researchers. More than half of its 60 research units are classified as "Excellent" or "Very Good" by the latest international independent reviews and are spread over three campuses. The qualification of excellence of Faculty members (81% of Faculty members and researchers are Ph.Ds) guarantees the high quality of training at the University of Porto, making it the most sought by the Portuguese university applicants to Higher Education and the favourite of students with the highest school grades. It is in the context of this university of excellence that the Faculties of Humanities and Fine Arts offer a Ph.D in Museology ensuring the necessary support for the development of students' work in Museology with a strong relationship and connection with the region and local museum reality and simultaneously a strong relationship to the national, European and international reality.

Objectives

The main objective of the study cycle is to educate museum specialists to engage in high level research and autonomous professional practice, solid experiment-based theory and practice, and professional skills leading to performing tasks in Museum and Cultural Heritage as regards scientific research, management, planning, intervention, conservation, adding value, and communicating information. Thus we aim to:

• Provide a degree which has high scientific and technical quality and is recognized by academics and professionals;

• Deepen, systematize and produce scientific knowledge in specific areas of Museology with innovative approaches;

• Motivate and encourage students to develop a capacity for intelectual questioning, critical evaluation, creative innovation, and a commitement to lifelong learning;

• Reinforce the capacity for autonomous, individual academic museological research;

• Develop the capacity for theoretical reflection and critical awareness in Museology

Fields of Specialization

1. Museums and Curatorship

Placed in the intersection of Museology and Curatorial Studies, this line of inquiry is focused on the exhibition as an investigative ground, exploring the various models and diversified roles that the exhibition has played historically and in the present. The exhibition is understood as a process through which knowledge and meaning are built, negotiated and displayed; as a strategy to build and preserve museum collections; as a vehicle of communication and audiences involvement; as an artistic medium and place of artistic production

2. MUSEUMS, HERITAGE AND PREVENTIVECONSERVATION

Line of interdisciplinary research directed towards the development of fundamental and applied studies to heritage and the universe of museums, seeking to identify and better understand their vulnerabilities and contribute to their minimization, promoting and enhancing scientific, technological and organizational knowledge and resources, and weaving synergistic networks of collaboration. Also encourages research that integrates the history, theories, objectives and methodologies of preventive conservation as well as its role and importance within a policy of integrated and sustainable protection of heritage, development at different scales and resilience of communities.

3. MUSEUMS COLLECTIONS AND HERITAGE

Research line which focus attention on the study of the formation of museums and other culture and memory display interpretative devices (understood as part of the exhibitionary complex); political and poetic processes of collecting, musealisation and patrimonialisation. It also conducts research on collections management, the use of information about collections for different purposes.In summary, it is committed to studying the museum, museum collections and heritage in its numerous modalities, considering its potential in terms of transformative power of pre-existing contexts.  It welcomes, among others, study models arising out of critical theory, post-colonial theory, material culture, archaeology, memory and landscape studies; seeking to explore this rich field of meaning and modes of knowledge to which they relate.

4. MUSEUMS, SPACE AND COMUNICATION

This  research line focuses on the process of communication in museums as part of broader institutional policy, where meanings, representations and subjectivities are constructed and negotiated, either through its exhibition projects (spaces, objects, narratives, discourses), either through mediation practices of  with its visitors. It aims to promote studies and research on the interpretive framework of the museum itself, e.g., modes of appropriation and construction of knowledges, codes, conventions and languages; or even new miscegenation between visitors and objects generated within communicative processes.The line hosts, among others, study models arising out of the points of interception between, postcolonial critical theory, cultural studies, theories of knowledge, learning and communication, education, creativity, performativity; seeking to explore this rich field of meaning and modes of knowledge to which they relate.

5. Management and Entrepreneurship

Departing from extended models on current management and its critical considerations, we intend to participate in the study on the different applications in the world of museums, exploring new models or its restructuration in the organizational context, namely the set of skills museums develop to create value in line with economic, social or other strategic objectives that allow museums to work in partnership; offer joint value propositions; build multichannel; earn revenues and profits from different sources.

Professional Abilities

We support the development of knowledge and problem-solving skills needed to pursue a myriad of careers in museology. We strive to provide every student with the opportunity to discuss and explore questions relevant to contemporary museological debate so they become informed citizens capable of understanding current issues facing humanity. We provide effective, high-quality courses that foster understanding of foundational and advanced concepts in museology, develop the analytical skills necessary to examine issues critically, and teach critical-thinking skills needed to formulate independent judgment. Last, we recognize that effective learning in the graduate environment requires providing students with ample opportunities to learn research methods, data analysis, and formulation and testing of hypotheses. Our students also gain experience in the practical aspects of scientific writing as it relates to dissemination of scientific knowledge and generation of scientific proposals.

Employment Prospects

Program graduates find employment in the public sector or in private business where there is an increasing demand for employees with a research background. The program is committed to working with students from diverse backgrounds, including those traditionally under-represented in higher education. Diverse voices and perspectives are fundamental to this Ph.D programme The Programme’s effort and active research environment strives to contribute significantly to the accumulation, dissemination, and synthesis of knowledge in Museology.  To this end, it is committed to creating and fostering a state-of-the-art graduate Doctoral programme.

Information

 

The pioneering character of this PhD was highlighted in the review carried out by A3ES - Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education during 2013:

• Relatório preliminar da CAE
• Decisão de Conselho de Administração
• Regulations available at Documentos do Curso.

 

Contacts

Email (Program's direction): dmus@letras.up.pt

Departamento de Ciências e Técnicas do Património

Secretariado do Departamento:
Horário de atendimento: 9:30-13:00 / 14:00-17:30
Telefone de contacto: 220427659 (ext. 3259)

General information

Involved Organic Units

Certificates

Main Scientific Areas

Previous Courses/Cycles of Study