Bachelor of Arts in Theatre

at Shorelight Group - University of Kansas USA

The KU Jazz Studies Program has both performance and academic components, including three big bands, seven combos, and classes in arranging, improvisation, jazz history, jazz theory and jazz pedagogy.  KU Jazz groups and individual students have distinguished national credentials, winning 22 Down Beat Student Music Awards since 1992. With the generous support of the Gregory Harding Memorial Jazz Fund and the Lipscomb Jazz Fund, the Jazz Studies Program also sponsors clinics and master classes during the academic year. Past artists include Michael Brecker, Jerry Bergonzi, Hal Galper, Dr. Billy Taylor, Wynton Marsalis, Jim McNeely, Peter Erskine, Maria Schneider, Dave Douglas, John Fedchock, John Abercrombie, Gary Foster, Kenny Werner, Vince Mendoza, Greg Osby, and many others.

The KU School of Music now offers a Bachelor of Arts degree with a Jazz Studies concentration.  Students in the degree program perform in the KU Jazz Ensembles and Jazz Combos, study privately with KU studio faculty and jazz lecturers, and take courses in jazz studies along with other music courses and liberal arts classes.

The Bachelor of Arts course work blends theory and practice. We offer a comprehensive array of classroom opportunities, including courses in film/video and production.  There are two emphases to choose from.  Production, with a focus on film and video production, will prepare you for a career in the film industry with the addition of study in quantitative reasoning.  Culture and Studies will allow you the opportunity to not only work in film production and study quantitative reasoning but also explore the impact of film in various cultures and societies as well as the prospect of what the future holds for the development of new forms of media.

Film/Media projects originate in our media production courses. Many of these student works have won honors at regional, national, and international competitions. The Fiske Guide to Colleges has listed KU as one of the "Major Universities Strong in Film/Television" placing us with other film schools such as the University of Southern California and New York University.

The Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology focuses on the integration of biological systems at the whole organism level, and on how living organisms exist in populations, species, and communities within their environment. Core classes such as genetics, ecology, and evolutionary biology are combined with courses such as statistics, biochemistry, systematics, and organismal diversity to provide a strong foundation in biology. Students choose electives from a diverse set of classes that allow them to focus on areas of interest.

Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Since all human behavior is social, few fields have such broad scope and relevance for research, theory, and the application of knowledge.

A sociology major can give you the knowledge of social relations and society that will enhance your career opportunities. Depending on your interests, the sociology courses you’ve taken, and your second major, this degree opens doors to entry-level positions. The department’s graduates work in personnel administration, social service agencies, and business. They are journalists, researchers, social workers, and statisticians. Your sociology degree is excellent preparation for graduate studies in sociology as well as in areas such as social welfare, public administration.

The European Studies Program provides a vibrant community for research, teaching, and related activities that explore historical and contemporary European cultures, societies, states, economies, natural resources, and environments. Seeking to serve students, faculty, and staff at the University of Kansas as well as the broader local, regional, national, and international communities, the European Studies Program generates grant activity and develops research, curricular, and outreach projects that support the mission of the University.

Our Department will introduce you to histories, cultures and societies in Africa and its Diasporas, with due attention to the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.  Our degrees, with opportunities for fieldwork in Africa or the African Diaspora, encourage students to engage in independent study to maximize their academic and research potential, and prepare for careers in these geographic, cultural, and policy areas.

In 1968, San Francisco State University established the nation's first Black Studies department. In 1970, the University of Kansas created the Department of African Studies, which became African and African-American Studies in 1986. Like any department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas, our goal is to prepare students to succeed in a wide range of professions including the arts, business, education, foreign affairs, medicine, law, science, and the like. Yet we, along with many of the similar African and African American Studies departments around the country.

The overall program mission for the B.S. degree in chemical or petroleum engineering is to provide a modern chemical or petroleum engineering education with proper balance between theory and practice. Graduates are prepared for professional practice in industry or government and for post-undergraduate training in chemical or petroleum engineering, medicine, etc. In addition to scientific and engineering training, students receive training in educational skills and in the humanities and social sciences.

Petroleum engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the drilling, recovery, production, and distribution of petroleum and natural gas. It includes knowledge of the properties of fluids and rocks in surface and subsurface environments as well as methods of exploiting the economic production of oil and gas from petroleum reservoirs. A major subdivision at KU is reservoir engineering, or the development of processes to improve production from oil and gas reservoirs. Reservoir engineers use sophisticated mathematical techniques and computer technology to obtain optimum production. Through such techniques, petroleum engineers continue to extract oil and gas from reservoirs that only a few years ago would have been considered uneconomical. This branch of engineering is somewhat different from the other in that production is far removed from physical observation.

The classroom meets the stage in the University Theatre, a leading arts program serving the KU and Lawrence communities. KU Theatre students, faculty and professional staff work together to create up to eight fully-produced shows each year, from dramas to musicals to opera.  In our fully-equipped facilities students engage in all aspects of production onstage and backstage.  Production continues year round with the summer Kansas Repertory Theatre program.

Highly Qualified Faculty Scholars and Artists

The Theatre faculty are creative artists and researchers working in the areas of theatre technology, performance, design, dramatic literature, dramaturgy, pedagogy, as well as the historical, literary, and cultural study of theatre and performance. Our faculty include award-winning teachers and internationally recognized scholars and artists working in professional theatre and authoring books and articles.

In philosophy we ask big, important questions. While asking such questions is easy, answering them is difficult. Because these questions are often abstract and vague, it is necessary to use precise reasoning and analysis to clarify what exactly it is we are asking. Only then can we attempt to develop answers. For example:

• What is the morally right thing to do?
• What is the nature of the mind?
• When can we know something, rather than merely believing it?
• Do the sciences exhaust what can be known about the natural world?
• What is justice?
• What assumptions do we make when we try to answer questions like these?
• Plus many, many others...

In studying philosophy, you will learn what others have thought about life's big questions. You will also learn to challenge those views, and to develop your own thoughts in a precise, logical manner. Philosophy will help you develop critical thinking skills, enabling you to analyze the underlying logic and assumptions in arguments about a variety of topics. This is a skill that generalizes to virtually every area of life.

Students in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies develop a broad set of skills to critically analyze social issues from multiple disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, history, law, literature, political science, psychology, and sociology. They learn to employ different methods and modes of analysis to better identify, critique, and productively understand the status of women in society and how structures of inequality interact with gender and sexuality.

With a major in WGSS, you'll be able to:

• Confront social problems around gender and sexuality
• Collaborate with students and faculty from across the social sciences and humanities
• Build expertise on issues that matter most to you