Comments on: Your College’s Oddest Courses

By: Devon

Devon — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:47:19 +0000

I looked through my brother’s Salisbury course catalog the other night, and they have a course a course on Chaucer that’s taught in Middle English, (“Study of representative works by the 14th century poet Chaucer, taught in their originial language, Middle English, with a special emphasis on the Canterbury Tales.”)

They also have a course entirely dedicated to German short stories. (Really: It’s just called German Short Stories.)

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:11:00 +0000

I don’t go to the university but I checked their online catalog and UC Merced offers “Material Culture”, which “examines the role that material objects play in human social relations, identity, and economy”.

“History of Ethnic Costume”: Survey of ethnic costume across the globe.

“Hispanic/Latino Childrenâ€™s Literature and Film”: Explores Latino/Hispanic childrenâ€™s literature and film from theoretical and cultural perspectives

“Writing for Engineering”: Intensive practice in the presentation of technical subject matter

Alot of the courses are specific to this area like the multitude of farming related classes and the fact that we are close to the Sierras (“Mountain Hydrology of the Western United States”).

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:02:25 +0000

I’m a senior at the University of Delaware and about 2 or 3 years ago there was major press about a class called “The Philosophy of South Park”- the professor wrote a book about it and everything.

I, however, don’t know anyone who has taken it, nor do I even know when it is offered. sigh.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:54:58 +0000

James, I also took the walking class at Penn State. It was a great way for us non-athletes to still get the phys ed credits we needed. What a joke, though, since I walked everywhere anyway!

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 02:51:54 +0000

One of the cool classes that UF offers (though I haven’t taken) is called “The Tao of Star Trek”

By: Ana

Ana — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:46:41 +0000

I know this isn’t really odd at all, but I’m currently taking a class called Lost Cities and Ancient Civilizations. Ancient Civilizations is pretty standard college fare, but the addition of Lost Cities just makes me think of Indiana Jones. Also, for some reason I was convinced this class would be about Atlantis. (Guess what? It isn’t.)

By: natalie

natalie — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:36:50 +0000

There is a class at a community college in my area called “Dinosaurs!”

I want to take it just for the exclamation point.

By: Gudrun

Gudrun — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:42:41 +0000

I’m pretty sure it carries across the entire CSU system, but at SDSU I took “Natural Disasters” as part of our required upper-division general ed. Maybe not as quirky as some of the others, but it was all death and destruction, all the time. Also, it was consistently voted the most popular class on campus, from my understanding.

By: VersoFolio

VersoFolio — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:39:16 +0000

My wife is teaching a course at Wilmington University called “The Philosophy of Love.” We are currently doing research… ;-)

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:38:52 +0000

At Washington & Lee University in the late 80s early 90s, the English department offered a Fantasy and SF class, where we read medieval romance, Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Ursula K. LeGuin. I took it as a freshman, and later presented part of my honor’s thesis to the class as a senior.