We Creatures That Swarm and Multiply

Given that it’s possible to study “queer gardens” – “a survey of the horticultural achievements of gay and lesbian gardeners and a re-reading of literary works on gardens from a queer perspective” – I suppose a course in blogging “theory” seems like a sound career investment.

“Value for money” (cough)

I’m having a Jeff Wayne flashback.

“You will spend a lot of time on the Internet for this course, studying blogs, commenting on them…”
Kind of like what most of us do in our spare time, then.
Do they offer a supplementary course on sedentary studies? (aka sitting on the couch, scratching oneself)

My cynicism about lib arts/humanities aside, and were I able to have faith that the course would be both a rigorous study of the subject AND conducted in a classical liberal environment, I think this would be a worthy subject of study. But in such a world pigs surely also would have wings.

a course in blogging “theory” seems like a sound career investment.
At least it keeps another ‘queer literature theorist’ off the dole.

can not only be a waste of one’s money, or of other people’s money, it can also be the kiss of death.
Aye, there’s the rub. Though I’m a bit of the theory of using elective courses for fun. It would make a good elective for the kind of people who might one day develop the kind of software that is used in these classes. But I would be quite surprised if the course didn’t devolve into yet another opportunity for lefty tirades that would waste the time of most serious engineering, software, or business students. I found it interesting that the two links mentioned in the course description one was left-leaning (Julie/Julia, assuming it’s related to the movie) and the other’s domain name was expired. And that no direct links were provided except to the prof’s own blog which is certainly lefty.
BTW, went to that Jeff Wayne link and the commercial before hand was some more Awesome Shat…
http://youtu.be/OURiyZ5quw0

It’s another step along the road to making it a Profession, with qualifications and Societies and Unions and regulations, creating nice high barriers to entry for keeping the riff-raff out.
At which point it’ll be dead.
Is it any surprise that the Left colonized this sort of thing? With their creationist models of society, they can never just let stuff happen.

rjmadden: “Next: a course in how to use your mobile phone.”
Already done. Students on a computer course at a college where I taught had to demonstrate that they could do various things with it like dial a number, answer a call, charge the phone and so on. Fascinating for the students, and then we tutors had the extra pleasure of them trying to get the students not use them during lessons to call anyone, including the person next to them.
By the way, this college had signs on the wall saying no mobile phone use in college. A good idea, but sadly one that the management of the college were unwilling to enforce. It was down to the tutors to make that happen. As always with education, the tough stuff isn’t down to the well-paid theorists and managers.

NB stands for “nota bene”–Latin for “note well”.

Karen,
blogging “theory”
You do have to wonder how much padding and chest-puffing will be required to justify the word theory. A word that doesn’t sit too well with the premise of blogging – i.e., that any fool can do it. [ Added: ] But then there are intellectual titans filling space with their deep, deep thoughts on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Hey, it’s vital intellectual work. And we mustn’t forget this colossal effort.

I find it interesting that one of her primary choices is Riverbend’s “Baghdad Burning” blog. I confess to being an academic who back in 2004 gave a paper at a theater studies conference on Iraqi blogs during the initial phase of the Iraq War. I followed 16 Iraqi blogs (ones in English) over the course of the year, including the most famous one of the celebrated Salam Pax, who was initially championed by the Stop the War coalition, until he changed his mind about the invasion and thought it necessary (wherewith he was quickly dropped by the Left). Some Iraqi blogs at the time were anti-occupation, some were pro-occupation, and there were changes of mind over time. I tried to present a balanced account–which as you can imagine, did not go over very well at the conference and raised suspicions about me. But Riverbend’s blog was consistently hostile to the US, UK, and their coalition partners, and consisted in a great deal of self-pity about the loss of her privileged existence and pure hatred toward others who didn’t agree with her. I discovered over the course of time–or at least so I found it claimed by someone also researching Iraqi blogs–that the anonymous Riverbend’s father was someone at a fairly high level in Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Min,
Does Lindemann realize very few bloggers actually call their blog “a publicly accessible multimedia text”?
The summary does manage to sound both pompous and remedial, which makes me wonder who’d be likely to take the course, and take it seriously. Presumably, someone who doesn’t find the inflated starchiness amusing. As you say, that may not bode well for the “critical thinking” we hear so much about.

AC1,
They need to use their head.
The arts and humanities aren’t exactly known for their fostering of economic realism, which may explain why Marxoid boilerplate still hasn’t been laughed into oblivion. And thinking about one’s degree choice as an investment or a debt to be repaid is, I’m told, terribly uncouth. Or, as Karen once put it: “Gender Studies, it’s the fourth emergency service.”

Hmm, no mention of cat videos? What kind of institution of higher learning is this, anyway?