AbstractApplied 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.
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