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Piracy Studies
I teach at a college committed to interdisciplinary liberal arts education. We have a history of 'problematizing' great books by confronting them with multiculturalism, feminism, marxism, and postmodernism. This approach has been a key site of cultural war in the US for nearly twenty years now. Some on the right think that we've gone too far. But I think we can go even farther. In fact, I think that we can make an academic curriculum out of anything! To test this, in the waning of hours of a late night faculty party, some of us produced a new major: Piracy Studies. We think it could work.
From Economics: Econ 101 (macro, neo-classical, Chicago school) and Business 101
From Math: Applied Geometry (how to use a sextant)
From Geography: Oceans and Coasts, Navigating the Capes
From History: Colonialism and Imperialism; the rise of Capitalism; US 20th Century History: from Robber Barons to Enron and beyond (with special attention to the great Dot Com redistribution)
From Theater: Costume Making and How to Say "arrgh..."
From Sociology: Group Dynamics (How to avoid mutiny)
From English: Seminar on Melville
By Jodi | June 10, 2005 in Academia | Permalink
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Comments
Oh you almost make me want to go to school again.
Posted by: Exquemelin | Jun 10, 2005 10:48:20 AM
You missed the Bondage and Discipline part. Perhaps you couldn't afford experienced staff, who wouldn't be willing to work for adjunct pay.
The origins of the state are usually tied up in piracy and banditry too.
Posted by: John Emerson | Jun 10, 2005 11:44:08 AM
That reminds me, did I ever tell you guys I was a victim of affirmative action?
Posted by: Troll of Sorrow | Jun 10, 2005 1:18:32 PM
"That is a solid major that equally emphasizes business, the liberal arts, and hands-on learning. Majors will gain knowledge and critical thinking skills that can help them succeed in any field -- even if they end up never sailing the open sea again."
Creating some kind of brochure in the normal dialect of college promotional material would be a valuale next step in this joke.
Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Jun 10, 2005 2:38:01 PM
Adam,
Your skill at writing catalogue copy is frightening.
Posted by: Jodi | Jun 10, 2005 3:30:28 PM
I have always been a good mimic. That's why I plan on writing genre fiction if I become one of those people who fail to meet the high standards of the rigorous academic meritocracy.
Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Jun 10, 2005 5:17:55 PM
"Scholars of Piracy Studies explore and develop theoretical models to analyze, critique, and plunder cultural forms and social relations in order to create geographically transgressive symbolic categories of race, gender, and ethnic identity. The goal of the Piracy Studies Institute is to promote the study of shared assumptions, problems, and commitments of the various piratanical discourses. Begun largely in response to extraordinary changes in the 'humane sciences,' both in terms of methodological complexity and interdisciplinary orientation, the PSI seeks to bring about a confrontation among the disciplines with the aim of furthering the figurative and literal rape of all land-locked peoples irrespective of race, class, or gender. The PSI sanctions methodological and murderological diversity in the critical reconsideration of the rearticulations and recombinations of all them put to the knife. The PSI also sponsors two mini-seminars each year, given by scholars from outside the PSI who invite students to participate in their raids-in-progress in a series of a one- to two-week seminars at undisclosed locations up-and-down the Eastern Seaboard."
Posted by: Scott Eric Kaufman | Jun 10, 2005 6:42:16 PM
I bow in awe. Now, what I'm thinking of is how an NEH summer (winter?) institute in piracy could involve attacking and overtaking some other group's 'learning' or readin cruise. (The Nation does one every year; various universities offer cruises with intellectuals to their alumni. Perhaps the NYRB does as well?).
Posted by: Jodi | Jun 10, 2005 10:28:15 PM
The NEH connection is, for me, crucial -- the symbolism of government-funded piracy is just too perfect to pass up.
Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Jun 10, 2005 10:55:31 PM
The first thing the PSI needs to do is solicit funds for the Jack Welch Chair in Piratical Management. You could also have the Trump Seminar in Piracy and Hair.
The PSI needs to invite the author George MacDonald Fraser to be a guest lecturer.
Posted by: Tom Beck | Jun 14, 2005 9:54:37 AM
Finally a major to delight both the neo-con CFO trainees and the artsy-fartsy theater folk. And if you get the execs from United to teach Plunder 101 and a senior seminar on How To "Share" Treasure With the Crew...maybe this could even be a way to ward of the rightist onslaught on the "too liberal" Academia.
And soon enough, conspicuously pinned on black and blue power suits, we will begin noticing a small golden hook, and an occasional feather marking a laptop...
Posted by: George W. | Jun 14, 2005 10:57:49 AM
Actually, a colleague of mine recently wrote a paper on the aesthetics of piracy, for a course on 18th-century aesthetics. The title was, of course, "On Booty and Being Just."
Posted by: Rambling Thomas | May 29, 2006 3:54:07 PM
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