This is a Doozy!

Top 25 “Strangest College Courses” (according to Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning listserv, Tomorrow’s Professor):

(NOTE: Why is the No. 1 course deemed “strange”? Only because the person who put this list together knows nothing about the Philippines — ha ha ha ha ha! And, furthermore, why is No. 4 considered a “strange” course? We got a long, loooong way to go, baby!)

1. Mail-Order Brides: Understanding the Philippines in Southeast Asian Context

Joint offering in Anthropology and Women’s Studies, Johns Hopkins University

2. Tightwaddery: The Good Life on a Dollar a Day

Course Description: “On a theoretical level, we will consider how living frugally benefits your mind, your body, your relationships, your community, and the environment. On a practical level, we will examine personal spending habits [and] sharpen bargain-hunting rip-off-detecting, and haggling skills.” Offered at Alfred University

3. The Phallus

Offered by the Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice, Occidental College

4. American Dreams/ American Realities

Course Description: The class will follow immigrants to America from their first landing and all throughout American history, as their hopes and dreams were dashed and their fears were realized. Offered by Hart Leadership Program at Duke University

5. The Cultural Aspects of Food

Offered by the Department of Human Ecology at the College of Oneonta

6. The Evolution of Low Brow: Modern Popular Arts

Offered by Canada’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology

7. Whiteness: The Other Side of Racism

Taught at Mount Holyoke

8. Sex, Rugs, Salt, and Coal

Course Description: “Why are “oriental” rugs collector’s items? How did we come to keep salt shakers on our dinner tables?” and “Is prostitution really the oldest profession?” Offered at Cornell

9. The Adultery Novel In and Out of Russia

Offered by the Slavic Department at University of Pennsylvania

10. The American Vacation

Course Description: Self-explanatory. Offered at the University of Iowa

11. Queer Musicology

Offered at UCLA

12. Finding Dates Worth Keeping

Course Description: Self-explanatory. Offered at University of Sioux Falls

13. The Art of Sin and the Sin of Art

Offered at the Rhode Island School of Design (Darn! Self would really have liked to see a course description for this one!)

14. Art of Walking

Course Description: Self-explanatory. Offered at Kentucky’s Centre College

15. Daytime Serials: Family and Social Roles

Offered by the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin

16. The Science of Harry Potter

Offered by Frostburg University, Maryland

17. The Road Movie

Offered by the Department of Film Studies at Barnard

18. Maple Syrup: The Real Thing

Offered by Alfred University

19. American Golf: Aristocratic Pastime or the People’s Game?

Offered at Carnegie Mellon

20. Nonviolent Responses to Terrorism

Offered by the Peace and Studies Department at Swarthmore

21. Border Crossings, Borderlands: Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Immigration

Offered at the University of Washington

22. Philosophy and Star Trek

Offered at Georgetown

23. Star Trek and Religion

Offered at Indiana University at Bloomington

24. Campus Culture and Drinking

Offered at Duke (Self wonders why — ???)

25. Learning from YouTube

Offered at Pitzer

Hey, no Bay Area universities are on this list! An honor of sorts, perhaps.