NYU has never been shy about latching onto a front page story and turning it into an educational moment, whether it's Occupy Wall Street or viral videos or Prince. But it's not just NYU: it seems like every school is starting a course based around headline-grabbing material (Beyonce, Lord Of The Rings languages, how to win a beauty pageant, Street Fighter mathematics) because kids just can't get #engaged with book learnin' any other way. And this educational ideology has now hit its peak and/or nadir, depending how you look at it: Skidmore College is offering a sociology course all about Miley Cyrus...albeit, a summer course.
According to the Schenectady Daily Gazette, visiting assistant professor of sociology Carolyn Chernoff will offer a two-and-a-half hour class three days a week on the Saratoga Springs campus this summer. "From Disney tween to twerking machine, Miley Cyrus has grown up in the public eye, trying on and discarding very different identities on-screen and off," reads Chernoff’s course description. "She provides rich examples for analyzing aspects of intersectional identities and media representation."
Chernoff told them that she was inspired after watching Cyrus perform with Robin Thicke at the Grammys last year: "Sort of the ‘twerk-heard-round the world’ moment," she said. "All of a sudden, my students who claimed to be not that interested in Miley Cyrus had so much to say." If only Wittgenstein had Dougied, maybe someone would make a course about him.
“I created it as a creative and rigorous way of looking at what’s relevant about sociology and sociology theory,” Chernoff added. “Miley Cyrus is a surprisingly complicated cultural moment.” Chernoff said she's also contacted Cyrus' publicist, perhaps in hopes of Miley stopping by: "She may well find out. We’ll see what happens." So there's a chance you could see her in person! Or you could just, ya know, go to one of her many concert dates, and not skip summer classes. Alternatively, Skidmore students could take Introduction to American Government 3 and fulfill a social sciences requirement, or Elementary German 4 (which presupposes no previous study of German!) this summer.
Or they can take a class centered around someone who was recently involved in a Twitter fight with Sinead O'Connor. Your choice!
