Learning as We Go: Developing Best Practices for ‘Teaching Ancient Egypt’ in Museums: Dr. Jen Thum

"Learning as We Go: Developing Best Practices for ‘Teaching Ancient Egypt’ in Museums" presented by Dr. Jen Thum (Associate Director of Academic Engagement & Campus Partnerships and Research Curator, Harvard Art Museums) was the #MOEgypt5: New Directions in Teaching Ancient Egypt and Nubia Keynote presentation on Sat, 21 Oct 2023.
Jen Thum is Associate Director of Academic Engagement & Campus Partnerships and Research Curator at the Harvard Art Museums. In this role she creates interdisciplinary learning experiences with art and artifacts for students across the university; facilitates object-based teaching workshops for faculty; teaches a medical humanities program for radiology residents at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School; researches and teaches with the museums’ ancient Egyptian collection; trains graduate students across Harvard in object-based learning for local high school students through the Graduate Student Teacher Program; and works on various curatorial projects. She also teaches a course on museum pedagogy for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Jen earned her Ph.D. in Archaeology and the Ancient World from Brown University, M.Phil. in Egyptology from the University of Oxford, and B.A. in Anthropology from Barnard College. She has authored numerous publications on teaching and learning with museum objects and is the lead editor of Teaching Ancient Egypt in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice (Routledge 2024). Jen serves on the Outreach and Education Committee of the Archaeological Institute of America and regularly participates in Skype a Scientist and other public education projects. She is committed to celebrating the learning potential of art and artifacts for students and the public alike.