  We give an exposition of three geometric constructions of the irreducible
representations of GL_n. In particular, we discuss Borel-Weil theory, the
Ginzburg construction, and the geometric Satake construction. We also explain
how to deduce the Ginzburg construction from the geometric Satake equivalence.
These are lecture notes for a lecture series at the Summer School on geometric
representation theory and extended affine Lie algebras held at University of
Ottawa in June 2009.
