BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In Oxford, Miami University students can analyze their look in "Social Psychological Aspects of Clothing" or learn why they cheer in "Social Psychology of Sports Fans."
The popularity of these types of pop culture courses has influenced the content of other themed or unusual classes.
New this quarter at the University of Cincinnati are "Suffering and Death" and "The Witching Hour," not to be confused with UC's "Plagues and Witches," Xavier University's "Magic and Witchcraft" or "Arachnology" at the College of Mount St. Joseph.
Tristate colleges aren't alone in offering these offbeat, non-traditional courses. They're part of an academic trend toward popular culture subjects and themed courses that began in the late 1960s and have since gathered momentum on campuses around the country.
"I don't know if I'd defend all pop culture classes, but pop art is trying to make a connection to the real world now," says Bill Hagerty, associate professor of communications at Xavier, where he began teaching film classes 30 years ago. "These courses force you to look critically at styles, art, music, film."
The food people eat, the TV shows they watch, the people they date and the music they listen to are now ripe for academic study. Critics say pop culture courses have watered down academia, even through traditional heavyweights business and marketing continue to be the most popular majors.
Supporters, however, say pop culture courses are valuable because many of them demand a great deal of writing and force analytical thought.
Marilyn Margeson, a senior at the College of Mount St. Joseph, is majoring in communication arts and religious education. A non-traditional student at age 51, Mrs. Margeson finds her "History of American Film" course a "nice break" from the heavy theory classes that dominate her schedule, but by no means, she adds, is it a blow-off class.
"It's a nice balance with the theology course I'm taking now. It's presented in a lighter way," says the Sharonville resident, a 1965 graduate of the former Our Lady of Angels High School in St. Bernard. "I had no idea when I started college in 1993 that these kinds of visual communications courses existed. They're wonderful."
What's clear is that these types of courses are popular, attracting more than 2 million students a year nationwide. They are attended by 18-to-22-year-old students, as well as older, non-traditional learners. Some professors say the popularity of quality pop culture courses has forced them to rethink how to make traditional course material more relevant to students' lives.
Nationwide, many pop culture offerings tend to be current: Take, for example, George Washington University's class in "Scandal Management." Harvard University offers "Shop 'Til You Drop: Gender and Class in Consumer Society." "Material Culture: Things and Their People" is a course at Stetson University in Deland, Fla.
The offerings at Tristate colleges aren't as exotic as some of those at, say, the University of Texas at Austin. One of the most popular courses on campus is the "Rhetoric of Sexy Girls," whose description in a course catalog begins, "What is a sexy girl? Who gets to decide?"
A less sexy, but more important teaching movement appears to be building on campuses across the country, says Billie Dziech, a professor of language arts at UC. The trend leans toward presenting material in a way that is intrinsic to students.
"We used to gallop through the ages of American literature," says Ms. Dziech, who teaches a course titled "Money & The American Dream." It uses American literature, drama and movies to examine historical and contemporary attitudes toward money.
"You have to have a theme that makes sense," she says. "Good teaching is about more than the "what.' It has to have the "so what' and the "what now?' In the course of this class, you need to help students assess the importance of money in their lives.
"Literature is important for that end: Let them learn something about themselves."
In 1970, Bowling Green State University became the nation's first college to create a pop culture department. Since then, courses on popular music and TV have found their way into the mainstream. These topics and others as academic subjects are here to stay -- as long as this generation of scholars has its way, a Miami University scholar says.
Curtis Ellison, acting education department dean, is the former dean of Miami's School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western College Program. He also is author of Country Music Culture, a book that examines the link between musicians and fans, and has taught a course called "Cultural Interpretation of Popular Music."
"To dismiss popular culture is to limit (20th century) American history to its presidents, wars and economic cycles," Mr. Ellison says. "If you think about the people who taught us history and social studies, they were people who were most heavily influenced by World War I, the Depression and World War II. That's what they wrote about, researched and passed on to us."
Many baby boomers were free of worries and influenced by music, movies and television shows featuring the likes of Elvis and the Beatles.
"The post-World War II generation had an uncharacteristic affluence and relative freedom from immediate survival concerns," Mr. Ellison says. "They had a relative amount of money and time to absorb entertainment.
"So today, what do you have? Professors and teachers who want to teach TV and rock 'n' roll."
Area college offbeat offerings
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