MUSIC 331 History of Jazz 5 credits open to all students

This opportunity is open to any or all students who are looking for a Music course or VLPA credits. MUSIC 331 History of Jazz is open to all students and not restricted to only Music Majors. It was accidentally posted as a restricted course but should have been open to non-majors and especially Music Minors.

This course is an extensive overview of important musicians, composers, arrangers, and stylistic periods of jazz history from emergence of the first jazz bands at the turn of the twentieth century through post-modern bebop era of the 1990s. There are no prerequisites.

FIS Nantes program still recruiting!

The application deadline for the FIS Nantes program is approaching (March 1st,) but we still have openings in the wonderful UW program taking place in our sister city of Nantes. There is still time to look into this opportunity to earn 15 UW credits (VLPA, 10 counting toward the French minor and 15 toward the French major)! The Language requirement is 103 and the program is NOT restricted to French majors or minors.

If you are just now hearing about this program, or have recently begun considering it but need more time to complete your application, please contact :

Hélène Vilavella-Collins
FIS Nantes and Paris Program Director
helenev@uw.edu

VLPA course: DRAMA 415 - Costume Design

Are you interested in artistic expression? Costume design or fashion history? Story telling and performance?  Drawing or sculpture?  This Drama class, taught by a professional costume designer and UW professor, explores basic visual elements used for costume design in performance arenas. Projects are inspired by architecture, poetry, and dramatic texts.  No sewing is involved, but comfort with basic drawing level is helpful.

​If you are interested in this class, DRAMA 415, contact Professor Trout for an add code at her email: dtrout@uw.edu.

ENGL 473: Language, Power, & the Global Economy - VLPA, no prereqs

MW 1:30-3:20

SLN 14027

This course explores the close relationship of language, literacy, economy, and power. In doing so, it highlights the dominant and alternative economies of language in the context of current forms of globalization. More specifically, this course examines how, why, and under what conditions certain languages and language practices have acquired great social and economic value, while others have become relegated to a marginal status at best. In this sense, we will be exploring a variety of alternative forms of linguistic and cultural production as tools for active resistance to the status quo and the performance of new identities, forms such as rap music, hip-hop, graffiti writing, ethnic arts, etc. Topics of discussion include but are not limited to: the commodification of language; the spread of global English(es); the language of hip-hop culture; the complex relation between English, popular culture, identity, and mainstream literacy education; the impact of the globalized economy on linguistic standardization and the patterns of language use worldwide; economies for the production, reception, and distribution of knowledge, etc.

List of Selected Readings:

Burbules, Nicholas C., and Carlos Alberto Torres, eds. Globalization and Education: Critical Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2000.

Prendergast, Catherine. Buying into English: Language and Investment in the New Capitalist World. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. Print.

Rubdy, Rani, and Peter K. W. Tan. Language As Commodity: Global Structures, Local Marketplaces. London: Continuum, 2008.