Academics
The Georgetown University Department of Performing Arts offers academic and artistic courses in four distinct disciplines (Music, Theater & Performance Studies, Dance, and Public Speaking). It serves as home to two of the College’s most deeply interdisciplinary undergraduate degree programs in American Musical Culture and Theater & Performance Studies — both innovative in their fields and trendsetters nationally.
Academic Programs
The Department features a renowned faculty, including scholars whose research production focuses on publication, such as cultural criticism, as well as on creative research production. In its public engagement, the Department also fosters the spirit of collaboration, socially engaged performance, and artistic excellence, providing partnerships and close interaction with leading arts organizations from the D.C. region and beyond, while supporting dozens of performing student groups on campus in music, theater, and dance, many of which are offered for academic credit, the dynamic Theater & Performance Studies Program mainstage season and the free Friday Music Series are often linked to curricular offerings.
Emphasizing both the artistic and the analytic, courses range from small seminars to large classes and from experiential labs to advanced research projects. Many majors pursue capstone and thesis projects in their senior year, selected based on proposal, in addition to professional apprenticeships in the field.