Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music - Music Composition and Technology

at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee USA

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Theatre Practices supports engaged theatre practice that meets the social and cultural challenges of our twenty-first century society.

Our innovative curriculum invites students to begin by building core theatre skills, then gradually applying them to a range of projects, settings, and populations. This culminates in in-depth application of these skills through internships, community placements and a Capstone. The BA in Theatre Practice supports a professional track for students seeking a Wisconsin Theatre Teaching license in K-12 Theatre Education. It also offers students the option to earn a Cultures and Communities (C&C) certificate and is the home of the Arts and Social Entrepreneurship (A&SE) Certificate Program.

The BA in Theatre Practice engages students in focusing their study on educational and social justice theatre, devising and performing new work, storytelling, dramaturgy, directing, playwriting, and arts and social entrepreneurship.

This concentration is designed for the music student who wishes to concentrate primarily on the major performing skill.

Applicant proposing concentration in Music Performance String Emphasis must demonstrate outstanding performance skills. An on-site audition is required; in extreme cases, recorded examples of an applicant’s performance may be accepted in lieu of an in-person audition. Applicant should contact faculty in the appropriate performance area to inquire about specific audition repertoire and procedures.

The Department of Geography offers both master’s and doctoral programs of study across a range of systematic, regional, and technical fields, with innovative energy in the doctoral program for studying urban environments. The department’s overall strengths are aligned along a theme of “Changing Environments,” with three major axes, each responsive to areas with strong demand for new professionals:

• Urban Environments: This area emphasizes the spatial interactions of economic systems as well as political, social, cultural, environmental, technological, and other forces that influence the people, identities, landscape, development, and dynamics of urban areas. With the world’s population becoming increasingly urbanized and globalized, courses examine the continuing challenges of urban growth and change, race, ethnicity, and gender in the city, immigration and identity politics, and spatial aspects of urban planning processes and political decision-making.
• Physical Geography and Environmental Studies: This area addresses the interactions among natural forms and processes on the earth’s surface, the impact and implications of global climate change, and human connections with those natural phenomena. Courses discuss and analyze the distribution and processes of earth surface landforms (geomorphology), soils (pedology), plants and animals (biogeography), water (hydrology), and long-term atmospheric conditions (climatology). Overlapping emphases include phenology, water resources, conservation, natural hazards, natural resource scarcity, and the mounting challenges of global environmental change.
• Geographic Information Science (GIS): This area emphasizes using geospatial technology to further understanding of spatial interactions among natural and social forces at multiple scales across the Earth’s surface, and exploring the impacts of using such technology on social and cultural interactions. Courses examine geographic information collection (including remote sensing), data analysis and geocomputation (spatial analysis), information presentation (cartography), and societal implications. Our program emphasizes applications of GIS in urban, regional, and environmental planning, policy making, and public health.

The Master of Science degree program in Urban Studies provides students with a broad understanding of urban society and trains them in research techniques appropriate to the study of metropolitan communities. The course of study stresses the understanding of social processes and the analysis of social and economic policies affecting cities.

Urban Studies Programs offers two interdisciplinary graduate programs of study that are housed in the College of Letters and Science and led by social science faculty members from the Departments of Africology, Architecture, Criminal Justice, Educational Policy and Community Studies, Geography, History, Political Science, Nonprofit and Public Administration, Public Health, Sociology, and Urban Planning.

Atmospheric Science is the study of short-term weather and long-term climate, involving activities such as weather forecasting, climate projections, air quality modeling, data analysis, and basic and applied research.

Some universities may call this major "Meteorology." We call it Atmospheric Science because our program is much broader than just weather forecasting. Students in our program will obtain a solid foundation in the mathematical modeling that forms the basis of analysis not just of tomorrow's expected weather but also long-term climate change, storm impact and predictability, pollution patterns and impact, and the consequences of weather to people and organizations.

Our program emphasizes a conceptual fine art practice through the production of darkroom, digital, and hybrid work. Courses integrate socially situated projects with an understanding of both contemporary and historical visual culture by developing a vocabulary for effective communication within the photographic medium.

Economics is the study of choice and decision-making in the face of scarce resources, both at the individual and group levels. Economists examine tradeoffs between different actions and behaviors; analyze different scenarios such as a change in prices, cultural values, or law; and seek to explain and predict human behavior.

Students often ask what the difference is between Economics and Finance. The areas are interrelated and inform and influence each other. Professionally, there is also crossover, with economists working in financial markets and financial experts working on economic policy. In broad terms, economics focuses on concepts related to overall markets, government policy, and decision-making influences. Finance tends to focus on individual businesses and individual people, including the study of assets and liabilities, and financial statements and reporting.

At UWM, students of economics have access to faculty members who are internationally recognized experts in their field. Focus areas for students to choose from include economic theory, quantitative methods including econometrics, public policy, law and the economy, labor economics, and international economic relations.

The competitive field of Design requires practitioners who are intellectually curious, inventive, dedicated, critical, collaborative, and proactive life-long learners. Our students meet that need by developing as strategists, problem-identifiers, problem-solvers, and business partners.

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Dance prepares students to teach participatory movement traditions in community settings, and to lead community groups in creating and performing their own dances and movement rituals. Community-based service-learning experiences provide many opportunities to realize these goals. Many Dance BA students pursue a double major at UWM; the service-learning component provides an opportunity to integrate the content of the two areas of study.

In the Comparative Literature major, students examine literature across languages, geographic location, time periods, and genres. The discipline also explores the relationship between literature and other forms of cultural expression such as pop culture, technology, arts, music, or film, as well as the relationship between literature and other academic disciplines, like anthropology, history, religious studies, or women's and gender studies. It's a great major for anyone who loves to explore other cultures.

Students sometimes ask whether they need to be fluent in a foreign language in order to study comparative literature. Definitely not! While all of UWM's instructors and faculty in comparative literature do research in other languages, all Comparative Literature courses are taught entirely in English. Comparative Literature majors choose one of two paths - one path that requires some literature courses be taken in a foreign language program, or another path where all classes are taught in English.