Slashdot Mirror
More Anime College and University Courses Being Offered
Ninja Master Gara writes "Anime News Network reports New York University is offering a new courses on the anime industry and culture. Anime is slowly expanding from University Clubs into mainstream college courses, many of which begin at the 'What is anime?' level. Several Universities and Community Colleges already offer similar courses, or incorporate anime into existing studies." If any school decides to offer a course on the Gundam series, I'd be happy to teach a class.
Imagine what an effective work force we would have if people promptly said "Hai!" and could cheer with "Yatta! Yatta!" :)
what about hentai class?
"I still gotta take Tentacle Rape 203 next term"
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
This reminds me of the Star Trek courses that several colleges have had over the years. What a laugh riot. One syllabus I saw was basically watching 3 select star trek episodes a week, discussing them in class, and writing 5 papers analyzing them over the course of the semester. But still, that would be a great way to fulfill a GenEd humanities requirement or whatnot.
Repeal the DMCA!
I go to Western Washington University in Washington state and the Art History 270 course (India, Japan, China) taught by Momi Naughton takes an entire lecture period to talk about anime with a self-professed anime maniac, whose name I forget. He goes way back to influences such as Hokusai and brings basically the entire span of what we learned in the class and how if affected the development of anime. Quite interesting...
sig.
Course Description:
Anime (V33.0709) This course introduces students to the rich world of Japanese animation or anime, its form and style, history, popular genres and themes, major authors, and fan culture. We will explore the popularity of anime in relation to the cultural conditions of contemporary Japan and to the context of cultural globalization which is radically transforming the way audio-visual images are produced and consumed.
It's kind of nice to see that Anime is finally being recognize, after so many years, for it's massive cultural influences all over the world. It's gone from being a somewhat-maligned form of geek|children's entertainment to a full-fledged industry/art form. I think it would be interesting to see what's up next on the platter? Maybe the entire geek world can be examined for it's influences on modern culture. Think about it this way: someday your kids could be reading literature in school that includes archived Slashdot posts your doing now! Well.. considering how many "hentai tentacle rape" posts are bound to pop up here... maybe not.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Hell, the prospect of getting a B.A. in anime arts gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, that will probably contrast nicely to the bitter cold of sleeping in a gutter if I get that degree.
At the University of Texas at *Austin* last fall was a full course focusing on just anime taught by Dr. Susan Napier of the Asian Studies Center there. (Dr. Napier did a guest lecture at Dr. Gossin's course last spring when we taught "Nausicaa" for the second time.) Dr. Napier has been invited as a guest lecturer at Harvard this spring and will be reteaching the anime course there. Yes, they're actually officially studying anime at *Harvard*! (Prepare for hell to free over after classes start there in a few weeks..... )
As for the complaint about the lack of college level books about anime (in English, that is) that's true. But Dr. Napier has completed her book "Anime from 'Akira' to 'Princess Mononoke'" and it will be out sometime this spring or summer. This will be the first college level analysis/literary criticism of anime available in English.
we have had courses in Star Trek, Star Wars, Wine Appreciation and whatever.. but the point is here.. what will this mean for your future..
.. i am a big fan of anime.. its just that i think that a college course on it, while cool, would be a waste of money (yours/your parents/your state's) and time that could be better spent (on girls/brews/parties)...
i am not arguing that people need not be given a grounding in the arts, far from it.. but lets face it folks, this is POP ART.. i doubt that other than the history of anime, this "course" can teach you anything that you and your friends can't learn by just sitting in front of the tube for a few brews and talking about it..
the point i am trying to make is that there is a LOT of art history out there.. stuff that people take for granted.. stuff that people don't BOTHER to learn...
Colleges are offering this kind of course to make you pay for a course that will not mean anything on your transcript (unless you are going into the anime field) and is nothing but grade padding.. in the same vein you may as well take a course in Britney Spears
don't get me wrong
Suchetha
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Just kidding, calm down all you anime fanatics. If I can watch Star Trek then you can watch cartoons featuring scatily clad Japanese chicks of questionable age. :-)
Essay question (90 minutes, no open books):
Explain FLCL.
zing