Grading papers

One of the cool things about my job as a cultural studies professor is that I get to read student research every semester, which is always surprising both in its range as well as its intensity of interest. This quarter, I've received papers on the following topics:

*Postmodern Hong Kong Theatre
*The role of the audience in Adorno and Barthes
*The Metallica v. Napster Case and the reasons it alienated thrash metal fans
*The legal history of P2P copyright suits and the implications for the music industry
*The Matrix trilogy as a global entertainment strategy
*Dogma 95 in the national and global context
*James Bond villains and their reflection of cultural anxieties, post Cold War
*_Once Were Warriors_ and the case of globalized Maori culture
*Reality television and globalization
*The backlash outside Jamaica against homophobic content in dancehall music

The quality of the papers of course vary in quality, but it's encouraging to see students pursuing topics of personal interest, as opposed to reflecting curriculum choices made for them by the professors.