"I wrote my thesis on you!": Buffy Studies as an Academic Cult

"I wrote my thesis on you!": Buffy Studies as an Academic Cult. This article gives a good overview to the growing status of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in academia. I will note that many librarians are part of this group. How many TV series feature a librarian as a main character and regularly show the cast engaged in library research?

From the site:

At Spike’s crypt a female Watcher named Lydia presses Spike in order to understand why it is that he sometimes cooperates with the current Slayer when, in his own bloody past, he has killed two of Buffy’s forebears. A clearly flattered Spike replies, "Heard of me, have you?" While two male Watchers ready their weapons in fear of the legendary vampire, Lydia herself, embarrassed as only an academic can be embarrassed, replies, "I . . . wrote my thesis on you!"

When I chose these words for my title, I did so because they represented, in a series both intertextual and self-referential, a wonderful moment in which the Buffyverse seemed almost to acknowledge and even to anticipate the extraordinary field of Buffy Studies then just beginning to bud. January 2001—the month in which "Checkpoint" first aired—also saw the debut of Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, a venue for serious consideration of Buffy originally inspired by the gross of submissions the editors of Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer received from BtVS scholars around the world hoping to become players in this new academic playing field.

Now, a year and a half after BtVS came to its end after seven seasons, Buffy Studies is in full bloom. As Emily Nussbaum noted in an article entitled "Sick of ‘Buffy’ Cultists? You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet" in the New York Times in June 2003, the demise of the show could well result in more rather than less posthumous interest in the show, positively encouraging devotees, both fans and scholars, to "live in the past."

Information, Please

Information, Please. Here is an interesting article from Insidehighered.com. It reports that, "Reference books are the lowest form of scholarship. That makes reading them a guilty pleasure, Scott McLemee confesses." I personally love reference books and buy a new World Almanac and Book of Facts every year for Christmas.

From the site:

Encyclopedia entries are among the lowest form of secondary literature. Very rare exceptions can be made for cases such as Sigmund Freud’s entry on “Psychoanalysis” in the 13th edition of the Britannica, or Kenneth Burke’s account of his own theory of dramatism in The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. You get a certain amount of credit for writing for reference books — and more for editing them. And heaven knows that the academic presses love to turn them out. See, for example, The Encyclopedia of Religion in the South (Mercer University Press), The Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press) and The International Encyclopedia of Dance (Oxford University Press), not to mention The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism (Routledge).

It might be okay to “look something up” in an encyclopedia or some other reference volume. But read them? For pleasure? The implication that you spend much time doing so would be close to an insult — a kind of academic lese majesty.

The King and Trek

The King and Trek. Did you know that King Abdullah II of Jordan appeared on Star Trek: Voyager? He had a walk on role (with no lines) when he was still the Crown Prince. The History of Jordan writes, "King Abdullah II succeeded his father Hussein following the latter's death in February 1999. Abdullah moved quickly to reaffirm Jordan's peace treaty with Israel and its relations with the U.S. Abdullah, during the first year in power, refocused the government's agenda on economic reform. King Abdullah II is the only monarch to ever appear on the American TV series Star Trek: Voyager. "

Personally, I think this is rather cool. It is nice to know that one of the Middle Eastern rulers is a big enough fan of American culture to appear on Star Trek. I am certain this will be a trivia question if it isn't already.

INFORMATION LITERACY - COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA AND THE POTCHEFSTROOM UNIVERSITY FOR CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

INFORMATION LITERACY - COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA AND THE POTCHEFSTROOM UNIVERSITY FOR CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION. This paper is by Jane Elizabeth Thompson of the University of Pretoria. It was originally presented at the 2000 IATUL Conference Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 3rd - 7th July, 2000.

From the site:

In 1998, a decision was taken by the University of Pretoria to implement a campus-wide information literacy program. There had been various initiatives by the Academic Information Service (Library) at the University of Pretoria to promote information literacy, but none which addressed the issue on an almost university-wide basis. The problem was teaching the course, as there are 26,000 students at the University, 19,000 of whom are undergraduates.

Damelin Computer School was approached by the University of Pretoria to assist in the teaching of the information literacy program, and the Department of Information Science was given the task of producing the course material. A collaborative effort was implemented; the Academic Information Service (Library) as well as the Departments of Information Science, Informatics and Computer Science was involved in the course development.

The brief was that it would be a 12-hour course (six two-hour sessions to be taken over six weeks). It was to be a mainly practical course, but with a theory component so that the skills that the students acquired would be well grounded, and thus transferable.

The project has since been expanded to include the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. The existing course material will be adapted to meet the requirements of both institutions.

Issues that need attention are the success of having Damelin Computer School teach the courses, assessment and evaluation and the incorporation of subject specific material into the course.

Building Info-skills by Degrees: Embedding Information Literacy in University Study

Building Info-skills by Degrees: Embedding Information Literacy in University Study. This article is by Wendy Abbott and Deborah Peach. It was originally presented at the 2000 IATUL Conference Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 3rd - 7th July, 2000.

From the site:

Late last year teaching staff at Griffith University participated in a symposium entitled 'Spotlight on Generic Skills & Flexible Learning'. This event brought together academic staff as well as library staff, learning advisers and other support staff interested in teaching and learning issues. The discussion was based on the premise that the University has a responsibility to ensure that its courses emphasise broad educational values and 'produce highly sought after graduates with globally applicable skills for the international market'.

It was acknowledged that the University consistently scores very highly with graduates for its development of generic skills. However at the same time staff expressed concern at the challenge of developing more flexible, student-centred learning environments that have generic skills embedded across all programs2. As a result there has been much debate in the University about which skills are important, how they will be acquired and how they could effectively be built into the curriculum. One outcome of these discussions is the project described in this paper. What follows is an overview of the project and a discussion about the integration and development of information literacy as a generic attribute in the curriculum and some suggestions on ways forward.