This professor is dedicating an entire course to discussing selfies

Selfies are often frowned upon in academic settings, where it's wise to put your phone away and listen to your teacher. But for one lucky group of students, the selfies are now the course material.

Eve Bottando, an Indiana University Northwest communications professor, will explore selfies in a 400-level class this fall.

"People think selfies aren't worthy of nuanced conversations, and they are," she told the Chicago Tribune. "It's an excellent teaching moment."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

The class will discuss research being done on selfies as well as the questions the pictures raise about our society. One real-world example: Is it okay to post Holocaust memorial selfies on Grindr?

And Bottando isn't alone in her academic interest. At the University of Southern California, one freshman class focused on what selfies say about our ethnic, gender, sexual, and class identities.

Go ahead, bring your best duckface to class this year.