All the World’s a Stage

Earlier this week, University officials announced tentative plans for the creation of a new concentration, titled “Theater, Dance, and Media,” to be offered to undergraduates. Although the concentration must still be approved by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the current plan is to begin offering the concentration’s courses next fall; undergraduates would then be allowed to declare “Theater, Dance, and Media” in December of 2015.

The creation of the new concentration is a positive move, and one that bodes well for the future: The fact that the faculty is creating a new concentration to respond to demand shows an admirable openness to the intellectual desires of students. This announcement also suggests the possibility that there will be more new concentrations in the future that may serve other interests in an even broader, more diverse spectrum of academic fields.

In the recent past, there have been certain issues—such as increased funding for the UC—where the University has refused to budge despite pressure from students. However, the proposed creation of this new concentration represents the exact opposite end of the spectrum; according to President Faust, the creation of the proposed concentration is motivated primarily by student demand. It is an encouraging sign of the University’s willingness to expand its academic offerings into new areas of exploration for the sake of its students’ academic interests.

But this does not mean that every aspect of the proposal is perfect. While the need and desire for an area of study focused on the arts has been clearly demonstrated, it is less evident that “Theater, Dance, and Media” must constitute its own concentration and not a subfield of English, or perhaps some intersection of English and VES. There are a number of existing concentrations that contain distinct subfields; for example, a Classics concentrator can choose to study Classical Languages and Literatures or Classical Civilizations. Moreover, there is already common ground between the English Department and the proposed new concentration: The formal proposal itself was put forth by Martin Puchner, an English professor, and the proposed classes for the concentration will be taught by faculty drawn from current departments.

Despite these questions, the principle behind the proposed creation of the “Theater, Dance, and Media” concentration is a good one. Hopefully, making the field a distinct concentration will aid its growth and help generate interest as well as resources. Even if the exact details of the concentration are unclear, it is nevertheless encouraging to see the faculty not simply encourage students’ varied scholarly pursuits, but also actively facilitate a broadening of the University’s academic options.