Politics on Rai Music a no-go. :(

I have a certain professor. I will call him Dr. Unorganized. His approach to teaching has basically so far consisted of having us watch PBS specials and then assigning students to do presentations on book chapters.

It was the most damned expensive PBS special I have ever seen. If I knew I was taking out a loan to watch a PBS special, I would have stayed at home and watched PBS, thank you very much, indeed.

As for the student presentations, I'm cool with that- or I would be, if we actually discussed the presentations, seeing as how it is a seminar course. But he continually dismisses our class after just an hour or two (it's supposed to be a three hour class).

These are not my main issues. My main issue is this: We have a 20 pg term paper that counts for half of our grade. He tells us he has a list of topics he'd like us to choose from. I'm a little bummed, because I really want to write a paper on the politics of music, but I'm fine with that....untilll........

He tells us for 4 weeks in a row that he will bring us topics, failing to do so each week. I'm freaking out because it is October and I have a 20 pg. paper due in less than 2 months over an as of yet undecided topic. In most of my graduate course, by this time I practically have the 1st draft written. So finally, and since I've already been doing some preliminary research, this week I ask him if I can choose a topic myself. He says, what's the topic, and I say, "The politics involved with Rai music, specifically regarding content that relates to the French/Algerian conflict.

And he laughed and said that topic would not be acceptable, as this wasn't a course on music.

It's not that I can't use this topic for this specific class that bothers me- it's the fact that he chuckled, like it was an illegitimate topic of scholarly research.

It also bothers me that I know for a fact he would approve a topic relating to women's rights--- but what about the human right to express music? Not to mention that the music specifically discusses political history and conflict- it's a politically motivated genre of music, for crying out loud, AND, OBVIOUSLY, important enough to governmental leaders for them to futher polticize music by outlawing it, so obviously it is of political importance to them.

Well, as a wise soul pointed out to me today, none of this stops me from writing the paper anyway, and I really want to write two papers-the one he wants and one on the politics of music in the Middle East, just to prove to him that outlawing music is a matter of political importance and a valid scholarly pursuit.

I miss Texas Tech desperately :(