Marjorie Schwarzer is an American museum writer and educator who serves as executive editor of the Museums and Social Issues Journal, published by the Department of Museology at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 in Seattle. She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship

Museum Management and Curatorship

Museum Management and Curatorship is an international peer-reviewed, journal aimed at museum professionals, consultants, educators, and researchers. Its content is intended to examine current issues in museum practice...

. From 1996 to 2011, she was professor and chair of the Department of Museum Studies

Museology

Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...

 at John F. Kennedy University, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. She is a prolific commentator on issues impacting museums, especially those in the United States, and has authored articles and books about museums. Her book Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of the Museum in America was published in 2006 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Association of Museums

American Association of Museums

The American Association of Museums is a non-profit association that has brought museums together since its founding in 1906, helping develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and advocating on issues of concern to the museum community...

. The book was the basis for an award-winning Public Television show of the same title.

Personal background

Born in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Schwarzer spent her early years in Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

. After graduating from Washington University in St Louis in 1978 with a degree in art history

Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

 and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Schwarzer earned her MBA at University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 and began her museum career. After a brief stint at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...

, she served as Associate Director of Development at Boston Children's Museum

Boston Children's Museum

Boston Children's Museum is a children's museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the education of children. Located on Children's Wharf along the Fort Point Channel, Boston Children's Museum is the second oldest children's museum in the United States...

 snf Director of Education at Chicago Children's Museum

Chicago Children's Museum

The Chicago Children's Museum is located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1982 by The Junior League of Chicago who were responding to programming cutbacks in the Chicago Public Schools...

 before returning to Northern California in 1995 where she served as professor and chair of the museum studies department at John F. Kennedy University until 2011.

In 2003, she was awarded the Harry Morrison Award for Outstanding Teaching at JFKU. In 2008 she accepted the CAMMY award on behalf of JFKU from the California Association of Museums for leadership in the museum field.

She lives in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

 with her husband, the architectural historian Mitchell Schwarzer

Mitchell Schwarzer

Mitchell Schwarzer is an architectural historian who writes on the urban and suburban built environment with attention to issues of mobility, perceptual psychology, media, consumerism, and memory. He is Professor of Architectural History and Chair of the Department of Visual Studies at California...

.

Publications

• Riches, Rivals and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America (Washington, DC: American Association of Museums
  American Association of Museums
  The American Association of Museums is a non-profit association that has brought museums together since its founding in 1906, helping develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and advocating on issues of concern to the museum community...
  
  , 2006). Winner, Excel Award (Silver) for Professional Book of the Year. Adapted for nationally televised public television special of same title. (2007 Platinum Aurora Award for best educational television documentary of the year).
• What Students Need to Know: Graduate Training in Museum Studies (Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001).
• Frequently Cited Articles
• "Lessons from the Great Depression," Museum, May/June 2009.
• “Shotgun Wedding: The new California Academy of Sciences African Hall,” exhibition critique (2009), Exhibitionist, Volume 28, no. 1.
• “Museum Studies” and “Museum Careers,” (2009) chapters in Encyclopedia of Library Information (Taylor & Francis
  Taylor & Francis
  Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...
  
  ).
• “Literary Devices: Period Rooms as Fantasy and Archetype,” Curator (October 2008)http://www.aamannualmeeting.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
• “Civic Discourse: Can We Really Talk?” Museums and Social Issues 2:2 (Fall 2007), co-editor with Judy Koke and Kris Morrissey.http://www.lcoastpress.com/journal/php?id=4
• “Broadcasting Dialogue: Citizen Journalism, Public Radio and Museums,” Museums and Social Issues 2:2 (Fall 2007). http://www.lcoastpress.com/journal/php?id=4
• “Gender in the Temple: Women and Leadership in Museums,” Museum News 85: 3 (May–June, 2007). Revised and reprinted in Gender and Museums, ed. Amy Levine, Routledge, forthcoming.http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/gender.cfm
• “Looking Back: 11 Touchpoint Exhibitions of the 20th Century,” Exhibitionist (April 2006).
• “Turnover at the Top: Are Directors Burning Out?” Museum News 81:3 (May-June 2002)http://www.culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/workshop/schwarzer.html
• “Art and Gadgetry: The Future of the Museum Visit” Museum News 80:4 (July-August 2001)
• “Now Boarding: Airport Museums and the Global Audience” Museum News 80:3 (May-June 2001)
• “Decoding the Tech Museum of Innovation,” Exhibitionist (journal of National Association of Museum Exhibitors) (Spring 2000), .
• “The Mouse in the Museum: Technology Training and Museum Studies Programs,” Spectra 26 (Journal of Museum Computer Network) (Summer 1999), 18-19.
• “Schizophrenic Agora: Mission, Market and the Multi-tasking Museum,” Museum News 78 (November-December 1999), 40-47.
• "Dealing with Prejudice and Discrimination in a Museum Environment," in Gail Lord and Barry Lord, Museum Management Handbook, (London: Stationary Office, 1997, reprinted 2002).
• "Helping Visitors in Potent Exhibits," Hand-to-Hand 8.1 (Spring, 1994).