University of Canterbury Staff: Good Riddance?

After all the pissing and moaning about academic freedom and the sacred arts, UC has laid off 8, count 'em 8, staff at the College of Arts. Frankly if they shut down the whole "Department" of American Studies, it would be no loss at all. Don't believe me? Take a look at the American Studies curriculum. Yep, I don't know how scholarship will endure without The Animal in Popular American Culture or Gender Busting and Other Radical Acts. How about all those panting to take "Hip Hop Culture"?

My personal favorite is The Body in American Culture where, I kid you not, Dr. Vernon Andrews will

marshal a variety of theoretical perspectives - race and ethnicity, feminism and queer theory, cultural studies and poststructuralism - in order to understand the importance of sport in society. It moves outside "traditional" academic texts and knowledges, employing sport biographies, movies, newsclips, sports pages and magazines to forge an understanding of contemporary issues on race and gender in America.

Oh yeah, sign me up for that.

Anybody see any history courses, you know, the ones that tell you what happened, when and why. Economics? Sorry, too many numbers. How about some study of US foreign policy or politics that goes beyond Bush hatred? No that would actually require someone to move beyond the cheap anti-Americanism that passes for political opinion around here.