University vampire conference: it doesn't suck
April 8th 2010 01:31
If we needed any more proof that the whole world is cashing in on the "Twilight' phenomenon, a British university has just announced it's staging a conference on Vampires.
The University of Hertfordshire is calling for registrations for its "Open Graves, Open Minds: Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture" conference, beginning April 16.
Attendees will have their food served out of coffins and will hear from English lecturer Sam George, who's running a Master of Arts degree in vampire fiction at Hertfordshire.
Sam will discuss with her audiences the usefulness of the latest generation of vampire flicks and TV shows as euphemisms for wider teen angst about their bodies and the first stirrings of desire.
Well, that's obvious, isn't it?
The conference will examine important topics including "Appetites of the Undead," Undead Teens," "Politics of the Undead," The Gay Undead," and "The Undead and the Law."
And while some may find it bizarre for a respected learning institution to be staging a conference on such a curious subject, it's only one of many universities around the world that are now catering for (read: cashing in on) topics once considered too ludicrous to take seriously.
The University of Nottingham, for example, runs a degree in Robin Hood. Students are promised a thorough understanding of medieval society through the study of the historic bandit who supposedly robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
The fact that many experts believe Robin Hood never existed is really beside the point.
Not so far, far away from Nottingham, the University of Belfast runs a course called “Feel the Force: How to Train in the Jedi Way" where students can learn "real-life psychological techniques behind Jedi mind tricks".
Apparently the Jedi religion is still in its infancy, with the course running for just one day. Light sabers are not provided.
Across the Atlantic in the US, the University of Pennsylvania offers a course on reading and writing novels dealing exclusively with the subject of adultery; while John Hopkins University features a course on understanding mail order brides.
In California the University of Los Angeles (UCLA) has had amazing success with its "Queer Musicology" class, which explores how “sexual difference and complex gender identities in music and among musicians have incited productive consternation.”
Also in L.A. - and I'm sensing a pattern here - Occidental College has a course that looks at - well - the penis. "The Phallus" deals with those mysteries we've all pondered at some point in our lives, such as “the meaning of the phallus, phallologocentrism, the lesbian phallus, the Jewish phallus, the Latino phallus, and the relation of the phallus and fetishism.”
I'm not inclined to get into an academic debate about the merits of teaching students about the phallus, but I do need to say this:
For God's sake, it's just a dick!
Thank you. I feel much better now.
The University of Hertfordshire is calling for registrations for its "Open Graves, Open Minds: Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture" conference, beginning April 16.
Attendees will have their food served out of coffins and will hear from English lecturer Sam George, who's running a Master of Arts degree in vampire fiction at Hertfordshire.
Sam will discuss with her audiences the usefulness of the latest generation of vampire flicks and TV shows as euphemisms for wider teen angst about their bodies and the first stirrings of desire.
Well, that's obvious, isn't it?
The conference will examine important topics including "Appetites of the Undead," Undead Teens," "Politics of the Undead," The Gay Undead," and "The Undead and the Law."
And while some may find it bizarre for a respected learning institution to be staging a conference on such a curious subject, it's only one of many universities around the world that are now catering for (read: cashing in on) topics once considered too ludicrous to take seriously.
The University of Nottingham, for example, runs a degree in Robin Hood. Students are promised a thorough understanding of medieval society through the study of the historic bandit who supposedly robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
The fact that many experts believe Robin Hood never existed is really beside the point.
Not so far, far away from Nottingham, the University of Belfast runs a course called “Feel the Force: How to Train in the Jedi Way" where students can learn "real-life psychological techniques behind Jedi mind tricks".
Apparently the Jedi religion is still in its infancy, with the course running for just one day. Light sabers are not provided.
Across the Atlantic in the US, the University of Pennsylvania offers a course on reading and writing novels dealing exclusively with the subject of adultery; while John Hopkins University features a course on understanding mail order brides.
In California the University of Los Angeles (UCLA) has had amazing success with its "Queer Musicology" class, which explores how “sexual difference and complex gender identities in music and among musicians have incited productive consternation.”
Also in L.A. - and I'm sensing a pattern here - Occidental College has a course that looks at - well - the penis. "The Phallus" deals with those mysteries we've all pondered at some point in our lives, such as “the meaning of the phallus, phallologocentrism, the lesbian phallus, the Jewish phallus, the Latino phallus, and the relation of the phallus and fetishism.”
I'm not inclined to get into an academic debate about the merits of teaching students about the phallus, but I do need to say this:
For God's sake, it's just a dick!
Thank you. I feel much better now.
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Comment by Ken Lane
Comment by sam sall
Speech Starter
Health Matters
thanks For posting this
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile