Unfortunately, some of the conservative criticisms of higher education in the US make a lot of sense. Here is one course a conservative website is criticizing:
In what must be an attempt to add insult to injury for its debt-laden, unemployed alums, Rutgers University has decided to offer a course called “Politicizing Beyoncé.” We hope the university doesn’t actually think the course furthers its supposed mission of educating young people, enriching their minds or preparing them for life.
In the early days of this blog, I ridiculed a scholarly conference on U2, and I stand proudly by the opinions expressed in that post. That was a conference, though, not a course for which students are expected to pay good money. I love Beyoncé because it’s impossible not to love her but aren’t the Departments of Women and Gender Studies enough of a joke already without filling their curricula with this kind of sorry stuff?
And there is more:
Lest you dismiss it as an outlier, the article also points to Georgetown’s course “The Sociology of Hip-Hop: The Theodicy of Jay-Z.” Add that to “Is Harry Potter Real?” and “How To Watch Television” on the growing list of courses it should probably be a felony for colleges to offer in exchange for student loan money.
I have been teaching college students for 12 years now, and I insist that this need to attract them to courses in the Humanities with sexy, catchy course titles exists only in the minds of educators who don’t believe that their disciplines are attractive enough without these silly, childish tricks.
I am yet to meet a student who would hate and fear any discipline as much as many professors detest their own fields of study.
Clarissa's Blog 
Well, I think there is value in teaching students that they can apply the tools they develop in traditional humanities courses to modern culture – I think it makes them more likely to look critically at the things marketed to them and appreciate the history that contributes to what is happening in the arts today. I also know it can be difficult to get students to apply what they learn in one course to another course, and I imagine similar difficulties exist in translating their academic skills to daily life, so a course that explicitly addresses this could be worthwhile (and according to the NY Daily News article referenced within the link, that is one of the course’s goals). I think these skills could be incorporated into other courses, and their gimmicky course titles do make me question their value, but I would withhold judgement without knowing more.
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Saying a couple if times in the course, “And by the way, Beyoncé. . .” I do things like that every once in a while. But an entire course? That’s not serious.
And I’m sure the course isn’t really about Beyoncé. This is just a way of “duping the proles”. And this disturbs me.
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I actually thought of you and that post when I heard about this course. I’m not as opposed to it as you are, but it made me chuckle nonetheless.
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Students come to the university to find out that there are things to listen otehr than Beyonce, and things to read other than Harry Potter, and things to watch other than Hunger games. They listen to jay-Z and read Harry Potter already. But all we have as professors are a couple of years to give them Cervantes, Goytisolo, Berlanga, etc. And these precious moments are being wasted on this gimmicky stuff.
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Ooh, you just made me more opposed. That was a good explanation.
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Well, there was a discussion once at this MLA panel I saw. Well known professors were saying it was important to teach tv instead of literature so as to relate to the students and so on.
This graduate student I happened to have met earlier in the year, so I knew he really was some form of communist, i.e. not just a liberal, got up and said look. My students are first generation and their parents are from Mexico. They say they already know more about tv than I do and that they have come to college to learn about classic authors! This is what the working class about which you are concerned actually says!
He kind of shocked people, yes.
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That communist was making a lot of sense.
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If “How To Watch Television” were a sort of Film Studies 101 for TV, maybe it might be worthwhile. But “Is Harry Potter Real?” just sounds completely ridiculous.
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Well, I could name my course in 18th century drama “Is Harry Potter Real?” I’d start the course by saying, “Of course, he isn’t real, so let’s talk about 18th-century drama instead!”
That could totally work. 🙂
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My version: “Is Harry Potter real? That’s a very difficult question and I’m afraid there are no definitive answers (stretch this out for about 15 minutes, ending with) YEars of exhaustive research lead me to my current hypothesis; We can find clues about Harry Potter by making a comprehensive survey of 18th century Spanish drama.”
After they finish the final exam: “We started this course with the question “Is Harry Potter real?” I’m afraid we cannot come to any firm conclusions. Although I think we’ve all enjoyed and learned a lot from examining 18th century Spanish drama, I’m afraid my hypothesis that that doing so could answer the question of Harry Potter’s veracity is not confirmed. Science works! But I’m not giving up yet! I think we just might find the answer to the original question if we examine (insert content of next course)”
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You know, there’s a tv series called ‘Community’ that follows the life of a student group at a lousy community college.
They have classes like: ‘Nicolas Cage Appreciation’, ‘Theoretical Phys Ed’, ‘History of Ice Cream’, ‘Studiology’, ‘Baby Talk’ and so on.
Apparently, reality is catching up fiction.
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I loved the first three seasons of community (uneven at times but generally wonderful) but couldn’t manage to be enthusiastic after Dan Harmon was canned and decided to view the last scene of season three as a fitting end.
I also decided to the same thing (for different reasons) with fringe at the end of the fourth season.
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Is it the same with Mad Men? Because we loved season 5 and then watched the first 2 episodes if season 6 and nothing at all happened. Slightly different haircuts, but that’s about it?
Does the season pick up after the first two episodes?
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Hmmm…Baby Talk could well be a worthwhile linguistic study. Why do adults talk the way they so often do to babies. I have known at least one child who talked “baby talk” until he was six or seven years old, since every adult he knew talked to him that way and he had no idea it was not standard. Once he realized the issue, he quickly learned standard English. He is now a successful salesman.
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“Does the season pick up after the first two episodes?
Oh yeah. It gets _real_ wild (Bob Benson became a personal fave of mine* but there’s lots more).
I also think the ending of the season could also work wonderfully as a series finale and it’s hard to see how season seven could top it (though I’m on board when it arrives)
*hint, you do not mess with Bob Benson
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Is Bob Benson a new character?
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I think his first appearance is as the coffee doofus in the elevator with Don (first episode of season 6). Though I wouldn’t be surprised if they slipped him into a crowd scene or two at the end of season 5.
There’s a lot more to him (some of it predictable, some not, some just plain weird) by the end of the season he was a big favorite of mine.
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You were right, episode 3 of the season is much better. The part where Don defeats the nasty fat Jaguar salesman is priceless. The strategic use of the words “used cars” to the Jaguar people was very funny.
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