This is an update of Gabe’s Best of Wesmaps: Spring 2015 edition, because it was so damn good.
Spring 2016 Pre-registration is open, meaning it’s 2+ weeks of fretting—mostly for frosh, but it’s no treat for everyone else, either. WesMaps takes in your feelings, your worries, your hopes, your dreams, your prerequisites, and it spits them out into a nonsensical schedule as if to say, I am a roulette of chance and class hierarchy, and you shall bow to my authority.
So to help everyone out in their quest, I’ve been going around looking for the weirdest/most liberal arts/funniest course names and descriptions on WesMaps. Just remember, just because it sounds stupid doesn’t mean it’s not the most awesome and fascinating class you might ever take.
Disclaimer: As with everytime we do this sort of post, the classes are heavily weighted in the Humanities and Social Sciences categories, because, as hard as you try, you won’t get far on laughs with “Molecular Biophysics Journal Club II.” If you see anything that is noteworthy that I didn’t include here, put it in the comments.
- “Farming in America” (HIST 312/SISP 312): From the course description, it doesn’t seem like any real farming takes place, which would be the main reason to take this, so be careful.
- “American Jewish Humor” (RELI 278/CJST 278/AMST 292): As any good Jew knows, from Groucho Marx to Woody Allen, we have historically run the humor game in America. To study our dominance, and read some “humor theory,” whatever that means, take RELI 278.
- “Not Quite Passing” (ENG 136): Story of my life amirite.
- “Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy” (CSPL 336): As Zach reported several years ago, acclaimed folk singer Dar Williams ’89, who seems like the chillest of the chill, is teaching a class next semester. It’s DAR FREAKING WILLIAMS PEOPLE, COME ON.
- “Personality” (PSYC 250): “What does personality mean?,” says the course guide. Idk man, but for the socially awkward among us, this is your chance to figure yours out (or something like that).
- “The Human Skeleton” (ANTH 349/ARCP 349): Hope it’s less creepy than it sounds.
- “Modern Shamanism: Ecstacy and Ancestors in the New Age” (RELI 239/REES 282): You actually have to have smoked peyote to join this class.
- “Heritage, Souvenir, Fetish: Theories and Practices of Collecting” (ARHA 375): I’m not a hoarder, you’re a hoarder.
- “Magic, Sex, and Scholasticism: Tantric Traditions in Asia and Beyond” (RELI 348/FGSS 348): Actually the sequel to JT and Ciara’s Love, Sex, Magic.
- “Primate Behavior: The Real Monkey Business” (BIO 145): This isn’t a new class, but it’s still possibly the most gen-ed NSM in existence along with The Biology of Sex.
- “Aesthetics” (PHIL 267/COL 266): ~~~~~~