Representations of the Symmetric group and Young Tableaux

Course description:

This course will develop the representation theory of the 
symmetric group from a combinatorial perspective.  I intend
to construct the irreducible representations and study
their tensor-product decompositions, as well as develop the
combinatorial theory of symmetric functions and Young Tableaux.

Possible further topics include the Hecke algebra and 
quasisymmetric functions.

Text:
  Bruce Sagan, "The Symmetric Group: Representations, 
  Combinatorial Algorithms, and Symmetric Function", 
  Springer Verlag (Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 2003)
 
Prerequisites:
   First semester Graduate Algebra (but a decent student with 
undergraduate algebra and mathematical maturity will do fine).