The best part of this story is where the teacher says the students are bored with issues like racism and classism.

The cure for that is zombies apparently.

Beth Accomando of NPR reported.

San Diego State Wants To Draw Students In With Zombies

ARUN RATH, HOST:

From NPR West it’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Arun Rath. Well, this was bound to happen. Zombies have invaded academia. It seems to happen whenever something in popular culture achieves critical mass. Professors start getting excited about what it all means. From the member station, KPBS, Beth Accomando reports on San Diego State’s first zombies class.

BETH ACCOMANDO, BYLINE: San Diego State wanted to combat student apathy so Professor Emily Hicks came up with a class that had irresistible pop cultural appeal.

EMILY HICKS: The name of the class is one word – zombies.

JEREMIAH WESSLING: When I saw this class being offered, I thought it was unbelievable and I just had to join to see what was going on.

ACCOMANDO: Jeremiah Wessling’s response is the precisely what Hicks had hoped for.

HICKS: I teach in two different departments, English and comparative literature. This is coming through that department and Chicana/Chicano studies. And I have found myself able to bring many of my concerns into a class on zombies in a way that I’ve not been able to do another classes.

ACCOMANDO: This is the first time she’s teaching a class on the undead. And she see’s them as a means of bringing topics back to life. For instance, students that had grown bored with issues of racism and classism, or who felt singled out as examples because they were economically challenged, are now engaging in vigorous discussions on the topic.

HICKS: We’re talking about blood and guts and all kinds of things that are sort of leveling. I’ve found that some students are tired of talking about multicultural issues in general in my other classes but not in the zombie class.

ACCOMANDO: That’s because zombies, now at a peak of pop-culture appeal, are proving to be a surprisingly effective teaching tool – reanimating students in ways Hicks could not have imagined.