University in Australia Now Offering PhD in Heavy Metal Music
“would allow recipients to examine the differences between metal music from different parts of the world”
This would make a great Saturday Night Live sketch. Especially if the host was someone like Ozzy Osbourne.
Newsweek reports:
University Offering PhD in Heavy Metal Music
A university in Australia is offering students the opportunity to earn a PhD studying heavy metal music.
The University of Newcastle in New South Wales has started a scholarship program that would allow recipients to examine the differences between metal music from different parts of the world.
Other avenues of study include “Homelessness and Mutual Aid, “Vegan Geographies,” and “Unschooling and the Possibilities of Childhood.” The scholarships will be given to two students, ideally with Master’s degrees in geography, sociology or a related field.
The program is being led by Simon Springer, a professor of human geography at Newcastle and director of the school’s Centre for Urban and Regional Studies.
“I had free reign to recruit students to work in areas of personal interest,” Springer told the metal magazine Kerrang! “As a lifelong metal fan who has only recently started to do some work in the area of metal studies, I figured this would be a good conduit to further my research agenda in this area.”
Springer admitted that, when he was a PhD student, “I would have loved for someone to tell me that studying about metal is a legitimate academic pursuit!”
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Comments
“I figured this would be a good conduit to further my research agenda in this area.”
Evidently … this is offered for the benefit of the professor rather than the student.
To aspiring students in this curriculum: no relevant job skills, training or schooling = no job for you …
Mike omitted the money quote:
“I don’t think the university hopes to uncover anything from this, and probably don’t even particularly care what the students I will eventually work with are doing, as long as they are doing something.”