Big Surprise! Evergreen #2 On List of Colleges Offering “Weird” Courses

Editor’s Note: Take a look at the original story, The 7 Weirdest College Courses You Can Take,” in “Made Man,” a self-proclaimed “men’s portal that includes content from a variety of web properties,”

Columbia College has “Zombies In Popular Media.”  Cornell University has a course called “Gossip.”  University of Victoria, BC offers “The Science of Batman.” In the number two slot on this list of seven weird college courses is Evergreen’s program, “Looking at Animals.” Here’s the synopsis:

Illustrating the Evergreen Program “Looking at Animals.”

This course is how we look at and understand animals. The course contains lectures, readings, and seminars about how animals are portrayed in film, literature, and art. You’ll learn about the portrayal of animals throughout art and media history. You’ll then go through workshops where you’ll develop skills in 2D art, such as drawings or paintings, and 2D animation. The major project associated with the course has you combining your work in the studio with library research on exploring a particular animal or topic within the larger theme of the course.

Really? What’s so weird about that? What’s so weird about any of these programs? The Evergreen Mind chooses to interpret the word “weird” in this context as a back-handed compliment;  pop-culture code for innovative, interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

On the other hand …

“Gossip?”
“In this graduate course, you’ll explore the philosophical traditions in which gossip has been devalued, as well as how it’s been recently reevaluated by theorists such as …”

Yeah, this actually does sound a bit weird.

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