For Stanford Students

An integral part of the Stanford Archaeology Center’s mission is to make SUAC collections accessible to students and faculty for formal and informal object-based learning, research, and professional training. 

Stanford students can get involved with SUAC through coursework, internships, or original research projects. 

Coursework

SUAC currently offers one academic course, "Introduction to Museum Practice." This is a hands-on museum practicum open to students of all levels that culminates in a student-curated exhibit. It is currently taught by Dr. Raad in the Spring quarters.

If you would like to visit SUAC as part of your other Stanford courses, please let your instructors know. The collections are available for object-based class sessions. If you would like to study an object for a class assignment, please reach out.

Introduction to Museum Practice

This course entails a survey of the range of museum responsibilities and professions including the purpose, potential, and challenges of curating collections. Students will plan and realize an exhibition at the Stanford Archaeology Center, gaining skills in collections management, research, interpretation, and installation.

Note that this was was previously offered as "Museum Cultures."

ARCHLGY 134/234, ARTHIST284B

Internships

Join the Stanford University Archaeology Collections as an intern and receive training in one of five areas of museum work.

Internships are open to Stanford undergraduate and graduate students with any level of experience in any department.
 

Curatorial Internship

Conduct focused object research in preparation for upcoming exhibitions to go on view at the Stanford Archaeology Center.

ARCHLGY 97A/297A

Collections Management Internship

Learn how to care for collections, including re-housing, storage, cataloging, and managing inventory.

ARCHLGY 97B/297B

Archival Internship

Analyze, organize, describe, and digitize historic and current museum records, photographs, and related documents.

ARCHLGY 97C/297C

Provenance Research Internship

Look into early collectors and research when, where, and how objects in the collections were acquired.

ARCHLGY 97D/297D

Public Outreach Internship

Extend the Archaeology Collection's impact beyond campus by drafting social media posts and contributing to K-12 engagement and other community outreach initiatives.

ARCHLGY 97E/297E

Internships are available to all Stanford students for academic credit (1-5 units, or 3-15 hours of work per week). 

Undergraduates eligible for Federal Work-Study eligible may receive monetary compensation instead of academic credit. Please contact us to inquire about setting up a work-study.

All internships are supervised by Dr. Danielle Raad, Curator and Assistant Director of Collections.

Email raad [at] stanford.edu (raad[at]stanford[dot]edu) with questions or to express your interest.

Independent Research

Undergraduate and graduate students may develop and conduct an original research project. This is an option to conduct a cohesive, scholarly project with a defined final product in the areas of collections or provenance research, materials analysis, or another topic in line with the student’s interests.

Independent Study/Research

Students pursuing an independent project at SUAC would register for Archaeology independent study and research credits (ARCHLGY 195 for undergraduates and 299 for graduate students).

Alternatively, to receive a monetary stipend, undergraduate students may apply for an Undergraduate Research Student Grant the quarter prior to starting.

ARCHLGY 195/299

 

Starting with the graduating class of 2025, all Stanford undergraduates are required to complete a capstone project as part of their major. Students have the option of completing a capstone project at SUAC.

Reach out to Dr. Danielle Raad, Curator and Assistant Director of Collections, at raad [at] stanford.edu (raad[at]stanford[dot]edu) to talk about developing a project.