Sometimes I worry that when I get older, all my fandom obsessions and “childish” habits will become an issue and people won’t take me seriously in the world of academia but then I remember that
- My first professor at the university specialized in Jewish studies but taught a class on Sherlock Holmes because he really liked Sherlock Holmes
- One of my current professors once owned a Viking ship which he manned by himself
- Another current professor brings stuffed animals to class and lets students who answer questions correctly hold them
- That first professor’s office is also full of Beatles memorabilia
- Another professor teaches a class on the history of westerns just so she can teach Brokeback Mountain and Thelma and Louise to an audience who might not otherwise watch those films
- Yet another professor based his entire career around his fixation on William Shakespeare
- I knew a professor (but was never in his class) who taught a class on early American fashion, but his specialization was modern government
- I once took a class entitled “History of Rock n Roll in America” that was taught by a journalism professor because he really liked classic rock
- My Women in Africa professor spent literally 10 weeks talking about The Black Panther and how her favorite character was Shuri
- Another history professor teaches a whole class on the “Modern American Musical” which I think would be a really fun class, but it hasn’t been offered in the whole time I’ve been here
So I think I’m good. Lol.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the English professor who wrote an entire book on a single scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and teaches a grad school seminar on that show.
I had a professor who taught a different science fiction or fantasy class every defeater so she could spend 9 weeks talking about her favorite books
The academy expects you to have a specialty, but not to have no other interests! Many profs teach stuff outside their field just because they’re passionate about it, and those classes are often the most fun. Anyway, this is something I try to remind prospective graduate students of whenever I can. Just because you’re committing yourself to a particular field doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you’ll ever be allowed to do from then on. I’m an early modernist specializing in English drama but in the first two years of my PhD I’ve taken classes in three different departments and written papers on ecopoetics and popular music and campus protest poilitics and police power in the 1960s, just because I wanted to. My students are often surprised and delighted to see my Breakfast of Champions mug and the Led Zeppelin poster over my desk. Interdisciplinarity is great, and if it’s important to you to have that academic freedom it’s a good thing to ask about in prospective student interviews or at open house.