STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

halleybird · Hermes

Weirdest/most fun class you took in college

lindsayp · Kenneth Cole

witches and withch hunts in early modern europe

bizarro teacher but definitely very interesting.

Escrime · Kate Spade

Women in Victorian England.

We met in a pub. It was fantastic. We were usually pissed by the end of the lecture.

cc · Marc Jacobs

I took an entomology class on spiders (though I was an art history major). Due to a complicated situation, I was forced to take a science class during a semester when I had a huge courseload (6 classes total) and I didn't have much room in my schedule. So I had the choice between Kosher & Halal Food Regulations or Spider Biology. The class was really interesting, but we did have to keep a pet spider and observe it during the course of the semester. It kind of grossed me out a bit.

-- Edited by cc at 23:58, 2005-01-15

Lilykind · Hermes

My May Term class on Globalization and Canada. My teachers were funny. They kept funneling booze at all of us when we were on the trip. I took it with one of my former roomates and we were 15 and 16 at the time.

We learned about globalization and then we were carted off to Canada to see it in action. The only thing I regret is not having a form like this so that I could know all the cool things that existed in Montreal before going...

Kel · Coach

How come my school doesn't offer weird and exciting classes. We have just boring classes. One that i did want to take though this semester but didn't fit into my schedule was a class about the history of shopping in the 20th century.

sfclinevandy · Coach

We didn't have many cool classes, but the few we did I managed to find and take. My favorites were...

-The History of American Pop Music

-The Business of Music

-Human Sexuality

-The South in American Culture

honey · Gucci

not really weird but interesting (at least to me) and fun in the sense that i learned a lot

*irish folklore & mythology

*fairy tales & children's literature

*blaxploitation (the prof. could have been better, but i saw a lot of cool films)

*women & poverty (really eye opening)

*terrorism (i'm probably on an fbi watch list)

*american democracy -- this was especially cool b/c the focus was on how you would fix problems with the current system

Farrah · Marc Jacobs

I was a theatre major so I got to take a lot of fun/weird classes. My favorites were:

-Stage Combat
-Improvisation
-Stagecraft and Lighting
-Stage Makeup

BTW, they all sound like easy classes, but along with them being very fun they were very difficult and time consuming classes as well.

halleybird · Hermes

these are awesome!

I also remember another class they offered at my college (U/Arizona) - it was actually famous, written up in magazines, etc. It was called "Sexuality and Film" or some such thing, and all they did was watch pornos. The class had a huge waiting list and was only open to film majors. The prof was considered a "porn expert"

cc · Marc Jacobs

Oh I also took this seminar called "The Museum, The Archive and The Ruin," which was all about art history and cultural consciousness, mainly during the 19th century. We read a lot of interesting books, but the class itself was kind of a mess. However, the best part was that when I showed up for the first day of class the professor announced that the course was being funded by a special grant and we were all going to Europe for a week in October! We went to Rome and London and our airfare and hotels were all paid for (and both hotels were really nice) plus we got a lot of private tours. It was my first time out of the country!!! I had to apply to get my passport expedited because I didn't even have one.

halleybird · Hermes

quote:
Originally posted by: cc
"Oh I also took this seminar called "The Museum, The Archive and The Ruin," which was all about art history and cultural consciousness, mainly during the 19th century. We read a lot of interesting books, but the class itself was kind of a mess. However, the best part was that when I showed up for the first day of class the professor announced that the course was being funded by a special grant and we were all going to Europe for a week in October! We went to Rome and London and our airfare and hotels were all paid for (and both hotels were really nice) plus we got a lot of private tours. It was my first time out of the country!!! I had to apply to get my passport expedited because I didn't even have one. "

Nooooo waaaaaaaaaay. This is why public U's suck -- that stuff never happened where I went to school. We were lucky if the humanities dept. got bookshelves. (Research 1 institution...bah). What did you do in Rome & London?

cc · Marc Jacobs

I have no clue where the grant came from but it was so amazing.

I didn't see that much because we only had 3 nights in each city.
In Rome the only organized activities that I remember were going to the forum and to the Borghese Gallery. In our free time I went on a whirlwind tour of the Vatican museum (essentially ran straight through to the apartments with the Raphaels and then to the Sistine chapel), went to see Bernini's St. Teresa in Ectasy and a bunch of other things.

In London we had a private tour of the John Soane Museum because we studied him in class. We also went to the National Gallery and the British Museum where we had a lecture about the Elgin marbles. Oh and one night we all went to dinner at this Vassar alum's house with a bunch of older ex-pat Vassarites so that was interesting.

Lilykind · Hermes

I guess the one I'm taking now is shaping up to be a load of fun too..."Media and Society", which is an innocent enough title, until you realize that it's basically a forum where you get to talk to people like Larry Flynt and Sharon Stone about certain topics related to the entertainment industry.

DC Shopper · Dooney & Bourke

wow, Spider Biology? That is so cool/weird!

We didn't have too many offbeat classes...although we did have a P.E. requirement that basically included a health class! I think it was called "Truly Living" and everyone hated it. I was lucky enough to wait to take the health class until they dropped that requirement. But the gym class was a blast! We had to take 3 during our time there - I took spinning and step aerobics and playing on the field hockey team counted for the third. You could also take rock climbing, hiking, jogging, scuba, etc. It was pretty cool, I hope they never drop that requirement.

kealoha · Kate Spade

Most interesting was Politics in Film; Weirdest was an Anthropology class that focused on Magic, Witchcraft & the Supernatural.

lindsayp · Kenneth Cole

I can't believe I forgot about the class I'm in now: Equine Reproduction. Yesterday in lab I actually collected sperm from a stallion. Yes, you read that right, I, um, helped him out with a handy artificial vagina... I know it sounds gross, but it was actually really cool!

miss t · Dooney & Bourke

Both weird and fun-Psychology of Protest Music, my professor was such a total hippie, I think he thought he was still at Woodstock and I think he was stoned half the time in class, LOL. The class was interesting since it connected how just about all music, except for bubblegum pop, was in some way a form of protest music.

Pepper · Kenneth Cole

~Multicultural Dance Class

It was so much fun. Every week we learned different dances from around the world.

blubirde · Chanel

It doesn't sound that interesting but Literature in the Western World - Continuities. It was amazing! We read books that defined different eras and countries and traced all the stories within to common themes that every person shared. Most eye-opening class I ever took.

Oh and I took all the revolution classes (since I was a history major):

Chinese Cultural Revolution, Bolsheveik (can't even remember how to spell it now) Revolution, French, American, etc., etc., etc. If there was a modern day revolution, I took a class on it.