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Posted on 11/27/2001 12:01:25 PM PST by Jean S

From pornography to rap music, course content in many classes during the 2001-2002 academic year seems devoid of any educational value. Some classes mandate activism. Others indoctrinate students into trendy ideologies. Still others waste time studying frivolous matters. Accuracy in Academia lists some of the worst college courses, and their descriptions:

UMass-Amherst The Social Construction of Whiteness and Women-Exploration of social construction of whiteness, its interaction with gender, and historical and contemporary political resistance to white privilege focusing primarily on the U.S. The historical, economic, and political forces responsible for construction and maintenance of whiteness; exploration of mechanisms which ensure that whiteness is experienced as "the norm"; critical role of gender in the construction of whiteness. Students work in groups to design and implement activist projects.

UC-Santa Cruz Environmental Inequality-Modern society not only assaults nature; it does so in ways that reproduce existing social inequalities. Reviews research on disproportionate exposure to risks and hazards, especially along dimensions of class and race, and examines the environmental justice movement.

Harvard Multicultural Biblical Criticism-The course will discuss both the multicultural character of biblical texts and multiculturalism as a new interpretive approach in biblical studies. African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin American, Aboriginal, American Indian, Latina/o-Hispanic, and Australian studies, as well as, ethnicity, feminist, womanist, black, queer, liberation theological, postcolonial, and Third World studies, have begun to de-center the hegemonic paradigm of biblical studies. This emerging emancipatory paradigm of biblical criticism is interdisciplinary, multi-vocal, ideology critical, and multicultural. The course discussions will not only explore the theoretical and methodological challenges these multicultural voices from the margins bring to biblical interpretation, but also study the works of leading scholars that are shaping this field of study. We also will investigate how this new interpretive paradigm transforms the exegesis of Christian Testament texts, engenders the articulation of critical methodologies, or influences theological education and ministerial practice.

UC-Berkeley Topics in Film-"The visible is essentially pornographic, which is to say that it has its end in rapt, mindless fascination.... Pornographic films are thus only the potentiation of films in general, which ask us to stare at the world as though it were a naked body" (Fredric Jameson). Jameson's pronouncement about the essential pornography of the visible will be the starting point for this seminar's investigation into the history and rhetoric of visual pornographies (something Jameson himself seems to consider beyond the pale). What does it mean to "stare at the world as though it were a naked body?" What does it mean to be moved by moving sexual images? What are the regimes of vision that have authorized forms of "rapt, mindless fascination"? What is the embodied nature of vision engaged in such viewing? How have these regimes changed over time? In this seminar we shall bring together debates about the nature of pornography with debates about the nature of the visual and the nature of "embodied" forms of vision. Both will be considered in relation to the (mostly unwritten) history of American (and a few other examples of) visual pornography. In particular, we will concentrate on the changes that have taken place between an earlier era of "obscenity," in which explicit sexual images were kept off-scene for the consumption of private elites, and a more contemporary, and increasingly electronic era of "on/scenity" when pornographies of all sorts become available to wide varieties of consumers. Although moving-image pornographies will be our primary objects of study, this seminar will also consider larger issues concerning the rhetorics of still and image moving images, obscene bodies, technologies of arousal, techniques of observers and other popular genres which aim to "move" the bodies of spectators.

Vassar Black Marxism-The growth of global racism suggests the symmetry of the expansion of capitalism and the globalization of racial hierarchy. In this context, global racism works to shatter possibilities for solidarity, distort the meaning of justice, alter the context of wrong, and makes it possible for people to claim ignorance of past and present racial atrocities, discrimination, exclusion, oppression, and genocide. By concentrating on the works of Black Marxist intellectuals, this course will examine the discourse of confrontation, and the impact of Black Marxist thought in contributing to anti-racist knowledge, theory, and action.

UCLA Cultural History of Rap-Introduction to development of rap music and allied forms, with emphasis on musical and verbal qualities, philosophical and political ideologies, gender representation, and influences on cinema and popular culture.

Bowdoin Gay and Lesbian Cinema-Considers both mainstream and independent films made by or about gay men and lesbians. Four intensive special topics each semester, which may include classic Hollywood stereotypes and euphemisms; the power of the box office; coming of age and coming out; the social problem film; key figures; writing history through film; queer theory and queer aesthetics; revelation and revaluations of film over time; autobiography and documentary; and the AIDS imperative.

University of Pennsylvania Feminist Critique of Christianity-An overview of the past decade of feminist scholarship about Christian theology and institutions. Biblical analysis, historical interpretation, and alternative theologies will be considered, and the post-Christian view presented. Authors include Rosemary Radford Ruether, Phyliss Trible, and Mary Daly.

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