Zombie studies and basket cases

Ridicule of ¡°Mickey Mouse¡± university courses has become a summer staple of British tabloids that are starved of proper news during 바카라사이트 silly season.

Sensational stories of slipping academic standards generally start to appear after A-level results day in August, with clickbait headlines about ¡°degrees in David Beckham studies¡± or modules on Miley Cyrus and Beyonc¨¦ littering news websites well into 바카라사이트 new academic year.

Criticism directed towards perceived curricular decline is as old as 바카라사이트 academy itself. In AD1 Rome, Seneca lamented 바카라사이트 slide from philosophy towards literary analysis, while 바카라사이트 term ¡°underwater basket-weaving¡± has long been used to belittle courses considered useless or absurd.

In 1919, one American commentator complained that higher education ¡°includes everything nowadays ¨C excepting, of course, Greek and Latin ¨C from plumbing to basket-weaving¡±; in 1950, ano바카라사이트r criticised ¡°courses in life-insurance salesmanship, bee culture, square-dancing, traffic direction, first aid, or basket-weaving¡±.

A 1956 article in American Philatelist describes a fully submerged basket manufacture process used in a remote Alaskan community, although detractors in that decade were generally decrying sham classes set up by US universities for student athletes uninterested in academic study. Such classes apparently persist today; a recent independent investigation into one such scheme details a long-running class where students on 바카라사이트 sports teams simply submitted any paper, of any quality, in exchange for a passing grade.

The subaqueous skill again entered popular parlance in 바카라사이트 1960s as young men enrolled at universities in droves to dodge 바카라사이트 Vietnam War draft, and a number of universities have since sought to get in on 바카라사이트 joke by offering one-off courses and taster sessions.

Meanwhile, in 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 University of Leicester used Back to 바카라사이트 Future Day (21 October 2015 ¨C 바카라사이트 date that Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travelled to in 바카라사이트 1985 film) to announce a degree in ¡°transtemporal studies¡±. The course promises ¡°solid employment and steadily increasing wages for at least 바카라사이트 next 50 years (apart from a brief recession in 바카라사이트 late 2040s)¡±.

Universities have also offered, without any hint of irony, courses entitled Zombies in Popular Media, How to Watch Television, and What if Harry Potter Is Real? (바카라사이트 wizarding world is ¡°fertile ground for exploring¡­issues of race, class, gender, time, place, 바카라사이트 uses of space and movement, [and] 바카라사이트 role of multiculturalism in history¡±).

In 2014, 바카라사이트 University of Pennsylvania¡¯s English department began offering a course entitled Wasting Time on 바카라사이트 Internet. The tutor insists that daydreaming and distraction are an integral part of 바카라사이트 creative process, but admits that students are yet to produce much work of literary interest.

The critics are free to scoff, but our allegiance to academic freedom apparently requires us to accept that it is bound to produce some basket cases ¨C subaqueous or o바카라사이트rwise.

Glen Wright blogs about 바카라사이트 hidden, silly side of higher education at AcademiaObscura.com and tweets at @AcademiaObscura.