Graduate Assistantships

Graduate Assistantships

The Department of Dance offers several graduate assistantships that support both the dance major and general education instructional programs. Typically, we have 8-10 assistantships each semester with approximately 4-5 awarded to new students each year.  These assistantships provide students with a range of professional opportunities including teaching studio and theory courses, working on our online courses, and coordinating various areas that are in direct support of the dance major program, including publicity, recruitment, retention and digital media documentation.  In the Department of Dance we have both graduate assistants and graduate teaching assistants.  Graduate teaching assistantships are the teachers of record for the courses to which they are assigned and must have at least 18 semester credit hours of graduate work.

Graduate assistantships in the TWU Department of Dance provide graduate students with the unique opportunity to learn about dance in academia and prepare for teaching in higher education.  All of our graduate assistants serve in leadership roles and maintain strong relationships with the full-time faculty and staff. We encourage our graduate assistants to pursue new teaching and leadership challenges and to become an integral part of the department.  Many of our graduate assistants have proposed new courses, served as graduate student representatives on university committees, and developed a variety of initiatives that have contributed significantly to the success of the department.

Graduate assistantships are very competitive and we always have more qualified and deserving students than we have positions.  Prospective graduate students who are seeking graduate assistantships should apply early and plan to attend the January graduate audition.