And no, this is not an autobiographical post…
Via the The Age: Star Trek’s a thesis
It’s the PhD thesis that boldly goes where no thesis has gone before. Djoymi Baker watched 700 episodes - 624 hours without ads - of Star Trek and its spin-offs, dating from 1966 to 2024, in the name of research.
[…]
It may sound like torture for those with an aversion to William Shatner’s campy theatrics but, six years and 90,000 words on, it has earned Dr Baker a coveted chancellor’s prize for excellence at Melbourne University. And the respect of academics and Trekkies alike.Wow
–and I had to move to another continent to do my dissertation research. Clearly, I picked the wrong field…
h/t: Reader Ratoe via e-mail
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I had a similar reaction to “A Place on the Corner” by Elijah Anderson — the guy just went to a bar every night for three years and wrote his dissertation on bar patrons’ social norms. Pure genius.
Comment by Leopold Stotch — Tuesday, August 29, 2024 @ 3:41 pm
Ah, yes, but I was a genius early. Every junior in my high school was required to do a term paper on a literary figure. I asked my teacher (hi, Ms. Paulk!) if I could do mine on Gary Trudeau. She allowed that I could, and I spent the semester reading Doonesbury whilst my classmates were reading Thoreau and Hemmingway and so forth. Got an “A” to boot. ‘Course, now I can barely stand to read Doonesbury, but back in high school I was sufficiently ignorant to enjoy it.
Comment by Scott Gosnell — Tuesday, August 29, 2024 @ 4:53 pm
I can just imagine you kicking yourself for not thinking of that yourself. It could certainly have a political science angle.
Comment by Jan — Tuesday, August 29, 2024 @ 10:05 pm
[…] The Sultan over at Poliblog posted yesterday about a PhD candidate who did his thesis on Star Trek. 624 hours of episodes. […]
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