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Columbia University students to study, join Occupy protest for course credit

David Martosko Executive Editor
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Just a few miles from where the Occupy Wall Street movement was born, students at an Ivy League university will soon be able to earn course credit by participating in the anti-capitalist protests under the tutelage of one of the movement’s veterans.

CBS News in New York City reports that Columbia University, the elite school led by former Federal Reserve Bank of New York chairman Lee Bollinger, will teach the course next semester.

The anthropology department’s offering is called “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement.” It is open to upperclassmen and graduate students.

Dr. Hannah Appel, a veteran of the “Occupy” movement, will teach the course. Appel has written frequently about her experiences attending Occupy meetings and protests in New York and in her native Oakland.

“Class requirements will be divided between seminar at Columbia and fieldwork in and around the Occupy movement,” according to the course syllabus, obtained by The Daily Caller.

“In addition to scheduled seminar[s],” it continues, “this class will meet off-campus several times, and students will be expected to be involved in ongoing OWS projects outside of class, to be developed in close conversation with the instructor.”

Appel writes: “As a regular participant in the Occupy movement… I can say with absolute certainty that there is no foreseeable risk in teaching this as a field-based class.” She encourages students to avoid breaking any laws during their fieldwork.

Course readings include an essay by New York Times liberal columnist Paul Krugman, a tome titled “Revolutionary Tactics, Media Ecologies, and Repressive States,” selected essays by anarchist Emma Goldman and a book called “Post-Capitalist Politics.”

The New York Post asks: “Does getting pepper-sprayed count as extra credit?”

David is The Daily Caller’s executive editor. Follow him on Twitter