Several schools across the nation have their own unique courses to offer their students, but these five stand above the rest for having a creative premise and a real world application.
1. "Oh, Look, a Chicken!" Embracing Distraction as a Way of Knowing - Belmont University
This course gets points for the name alone, but Embracing Distraction is a seminar for first-year students in which Deen Entsminger will teach nontraditional methods for focusing.
The coursework will be fairly standard, like papers, lectures and in-class exercises. But students can expect to doodle in class while listening to music, writing papers using personal research on the five senses and other assignments that may just teach them how to multitask.
2. Stupidity - Occidental College
This course looks at human error as "an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite." The class will fuse elements of psychology and philosophy to help its students embrace and learn to deal with inevitable mistakes.
It is well chronicled how hard the job market is on recent college graduates, so students cannot be afraid to screw up when they head into the real world.
3. What if "Harry Potter" is Real - Appalachian State University
William Faulkner once said, "Fiction is often the best fact," and countless authors and literary experts have taken these words to heart since.
In this Harry Potter course, students will examine geographic location and events, real or imagined, and discuss their significance. J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels have been one of the most significant contemporary literary works and have a large impact on culture and society.
The course will also "examine issues of race, class, gender, time, place, the uses of space and movement, the role of multiculturalism in history as well as how to read a novel and how to read scholarly essays to get the most out of them."
4. Feminist Perspective: Politicizing Beyoncé - Rutgers University
A self-proclaimed feminist, Beyonce's massive success in the music industry makes for the subject of this class on gender equity.
Instructor Kevin Allred "will attempt to position Beyoncé as a progressive, feminist, and even queer figure through close examination of her music alongside readings on political issues, both contemporary and historical. We will juxtapose Beyoncé's music with writings on black feminism and the black female experience in the U.S. (and beyond), to attempt to answer: can Beyoncé's music be seen as a blueprint for progressive social change?"
5. Writers House Fellows - University of Pennsylvania
If the job market is tough on recent college graduates in general, it is brutal on those who have a degree in writing. Students taking this Ivy League school's course will get to meet the writers whose work they study. It is extremely important for writers to network and get as much professional advice ahead of graduating and this class figures to provide just that.
