Dramatizing/digitizing literacy: Theater education and digital scholarship in the applied linguistics curriculum

Abstract

Applied linguists who have their professional homes in foreign language departments at North American universities need to gear their graduate courses towards a broad variety of students. In order to reach sustainable enrollments in their graduate classes, their courses must appeal to graduate students in their home and sister departments as well as to students who are located outside the humanities in programs offered by their university’s School/College of Education. This essay argues that connecting graduate courses in applied linguistics to the arts not only attracts students with diverse academic backgrounds, but also establishes a unique profile for applied linguistics courses offered by foreign language departments with respect to those offered by other units in the university. The first part of the chapter compares the diverse learner profiles that applied linguists must consider when developing graduate courses of broad interdisciplinary appeal. The second part of the chapter documents a class project that integrated applied linguistics with arts education, public scholarship, and digital media production. This collaborative project, entitled Death Is a State of Mind—The Duchess of Malfi, exemplifies such an integrative learning environment. Students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds completed a digital public scholarship project that featured an educational outreach program supporting a production by an independent community theater.