The Minor in World Music and Dance provides educational resources for those students interested in global perspectives of music and dance for varying careers as well as for personal enrichment. The subject is interdisciplinary and, in addition to music and dance, includes artistic, historical, geographical, political, humanistic, cultural, and social aspects organized under an overreaching core with allowance for focused, in-depth study. Students are introduced to a variety of relevant disciplines, including ethnomusicology and dance ethnology.
Skills in understanding culturally diverse expressions of music and dance increase the graduate's career opportunities in a variety of ways. This minor offers an educational base for many culture-based areas of study, including teaching, multimedia, theater, and other arts, business and travel industries, health professions, bilingual and ethnic studies, social and cultural programming, and graduate study. Creative expression is a central focus of the minor.
This minor carries the following general objectives:
- Provide a foundation for knowledge and inquiry into many cultural aspects of music and dance practiced by the world's peoples.
- Develop critical awareness, appreciation of, and participation in the processes of aural tradition, and cultural concepts in relation to the individual and society.
- Encourage creative thinking in the design of cross-cultural as well as cross-disciplinary projects.