FULL STEAM AHEAD: STEPS TO A SEAMLESS GRAD TRANSITION

Grad School Guide | Melissa Mertsis 

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Happy March everyone! Can you believe we're only 5 weeks away from the end of the semester? If you're in your second year of the Master of Museum Studies, or your third year of CDP, you may be feeling a mix of stress, excitement, anxiety, and a million other emotions at once (I know I am) because this is the year that we graduate! With classes and commitments slowly wrapping up, and convocation in the not-so-distant future, it's time to start thinking about what's next, however scary that may be. The future is full of unknowns and can cause a lot of anxiety and stress, especially in a field like Museum Studies that is constantly changing. However, there are a few tricks to make the transition to graduate a little easier — keep reading to find out how! 

Image courtesy of Melissa Mertsis. 

If you're graduating this year, a quick and easy step to check off your "To Do Before Graduating" list is to submit your Intent to Convocate Form. Similar to how some of us were required to "Apply to Graduate" in our undergraduate degrees, this form submission lets Student Services know that you are intending to graduate at the June 2021 Convocation Ceremony. It's really important that you submit this form before April 1st, 2021 — don't wait until you receive passing grades from your Winter courses! Once you submit your Intent to Convocate, there are a couple more administrative steps to follow to make sure you're good to go — check out this comprehensive list that the Faculty has compiled. 

After you've gotten all of your administrative ducks in a row, it's time to start thinking about work. Even though we've still got 5 weeks to go, job hunting can be a long and strenuous process — it doesn't hurt to start early! The first step to getting yourself job-hunt-ready is to take a look at your resume and Curriculum Vitae, or CV (and yes, they are different). Your CV can be prepared far more generally than your resume, so this can be done ahead of finding a job you'd like to apply for. Include volunteer and work experience, relevant educational experience and projects, publications, and other certifications on your CV, and only include this in your application if they specifically ask for it! Your resume should be prepared "to order," meaning you'll need to change the wording and alter which experiences you want to highlight based on each job. 

Image courtesy of Melissa Mertsis.

Before prepping your resume for a job, you'll need to find a job to apply for. For those of us interested in museum and culture work, there are a ton of places to look. If your Ontario Museum Association (OMA) membership is still active, check out available jobs under Resources > Job Postings. OMA typically has at least a handful of job postings at any given time, and they update them quite frequently! If you're not exclusively interested in Ontario jobs, the Canadian Museums Association also has a free job board with opportunities from all over the country. If you're looking for something less museum-focused but still sector-adjacent, you might have some luck on WorkInCulture or CharityVillage finding not-for-profit and cultural heritage opportunities. The LinkedIn Jobs page is another great place to look for all kinds of jobs, and don't forget about websites like Indeed and Monster! 

Once you've applied to graduate, spent some time prepping your CV and resume, and looking through job boards, there's only one thing left to do —  graduate! Although it's tempting to slow down and focus on the future (the Senioritis is real), try to keep the focus train rolling for these next 5 weeks. Get those assignments in, finish up those exhibition projects and theses, but, most importantly, enjoy what's left of your time at the Faculty of Information! Participate in as much as you can over the next few months, whether it's submitting your work to the iConference, chatting with recent grads at MUSSA's Alumni Panel on March 18th, or even scheduling your own hangout sessions in the Virtual Inforum. 

Image courtesy of Melissa Mertsis.

The last few months of any school year are always stressful, but when this might be your last school year ever, the stress is definitely a little higher than usual. If you're feeling like you need some extra support right now, check out this article that I co-wrote about mental health resources on campus! Graduation is a time of goodbyes and new starts, but don't forget just how small the museum sector is —  the class of 2021 will undoubtedly meet again. 

MEMORIES OF DISSERTATIONS PAST: THE FRENCH POST-COLONIAL AND ITS MUSEUMS

BY: IRINA MIHALACHE

This post is inspired by a beautiful and exciting annual ceremony also known as Convocation. On Thursday, June 12, I put on my doctoral robes yet again, stepped on the stage at University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall and witnessed (with immense pride) the graduating MMSt class transitioning from students to alumni. It is difficult to describe the immense energy in the room (enforced occasionally by parents yelling “that is my son!” and graduates jumping – literally – out of joy). This thrilling event brought back a few memories of my own, tied to my own Convocation and to what preceded it or made it possible – the doctoral route and its most precious outcome, the dissertation itself.

A funny story before I invite you to a brief journey to Paris. I left Romania when I was 18 to study in the US, then in Canada. Because of this, my mother was never able to attend any of the typical events and celebrations which are characteristic to one’s university years – parents’ weekends, awards ceremonies, convocations, etc. She was, however, able to attend my doctoral Convocation at Carleton University and was given the important task of documenting the event. Due to nerves and emotions, she forgot to take pictures during the event so up to this day, I possess only eight pictures from the special day, all from the moments leading to the grand event. So, happy to share one of the precious eight images with you below.

Credit: Irina D. Mihalache (my mother & I), Ottawa, 2011

Jumping from my convocation to my dissertation (and from Ottawa to Paris), I would like to share with you a few ideas which I developed as I was writing my dissertation and which inform very much my current thoughts about museums but also my teaching. My dissertation allowed to me to engage very closely with a post-colonial cultural institution in Paris, the Institute du Monde Arabe (IMA).

Credit: Irina D. Mihalache, 2009, Paris

Credit: Irina D. Mihalache, 2009, Paris

In my dissertation, I wanted to tell three stories about cultural institutions, colonialism and memory. My dissertation was primarily interested in how IMA talks about France’s colonial past. First, I argued that museums are not monolithic machines for the formation of citizens, something that I often invite my students to consider. Second, I claimed that post-colonial French cultural policies, including the decision to build the IMA, carry the legacy of colonial systems of knowledge and regimes of visual display. I traced back the roots of contemporary French cultural politics to the 19th century colonial exhibitions organized by the French colonial government. Third, I discuss how memories of colonialism and of past colonial encounters exist in the most unexpected spaces within cultural institutions (such as restaurants and their menus). 

  

  Le Zyriab restaurant 

http://www.imarabe.org/preparer-ma-visite/restaurants 

So, my dissertation looked at three different spaces within the IMA: the permanent museum and a series of blockbuster exhibitions; the IMA’s official magazine, Qantara; and the haute cuisine Lebanese restaurant, El Zyriab. I argued that, overall, colonial stories are silenced within the formal spaces of display but become more prominent within the spaces of the everyday, such as the restaurant. What I wanted to do primarily was to locate colonial contacts and colonial memories within the complex network of spaces at the IMA.

My findings pointed out towards the absence of colonial stories from the more formal spaces of display, especially the permanent collection of the museum. The pages of Qantara constitute a perfect rendition of the ambiguous relation France has with its colonial past. While certain articles are openly critical of colonialism and its effects on post-colonial France, the majority of accounts celebrate the colonial contact for what it allowed Western scholars to discover about the cultural and intellectual development of the Arab world. Surprisingly, I found that the space where colonial contacts were best represented through the composition of dishes, the vocabulary used to describe the foods and the overall culinary and cooking philosophy of the restaurant. So if you ever wondered where I developed my passion for food in museums, this is where everything started. So take a few moments and browse the menus of the three restaurants in the museum because they will tell you more than you can ever hope to know about the museum itself. Enjoy!

Le Zyriab restaurant 
http://www.imarabe.org/preparer-ma-visite/restaurants/restaurant-panoramique