It was a headline too good to ignore: the University of Malta supposedly offering an academic course on the Eurovision Song Contest. To some, it was a confirmation of the worst stereotypes about the humanities and the elevation of a kitsch festival to the level of serious inquiry.
The ‘course’, in reality, is merely a single module, focusing not solely on the Eurovision but on music culture as a whole.
But critics may be surprised to find that the Eurovision already had a place in the university curriculum, albeit a small one, as part of a course on nationalism taught by anthropologist and head of the sociology department, Mark Anthony Falzon.
“The Eurovision is not a one-man show; it’s a significant cultural phenomenon which can definitely tell us something,” he told the Times of Malta. “Nationalism isn’t just about the big things like anthems, flags or political theory. It’s about how we live our national identity in small ways, and that often includes performance.”
Prof. Falzon is adamant that any distinction between high and low culture is obsolete, and that the basis of academic freedom and intellectual curiosity is that anything should be open to scrutiny.
“The last thing we need is some kind of Facebook court deciding what is worthy of study,” he said. “You cannot draw boundaries as to what people can or cannot be curious about.”
Moreover, as Prof. Falzon highlighted, the Eurovision has already been the subject of a wealth of high-quality and peer-reviewed research in a number of countries.
Popular culture has been studied by some of the most important theorists over the years.The Eurovision is an interesting case study, but it’s a big leap from that to suggesting a whole course on it
“It’s not the quality of the music that matters, but rather the depth and quality of analysis,” he said. “Let’s assume that witchcraft is nonsense. Does that mean that all books and courses that explore witchcraft as a cultural phenomenon are stupid? Of course not.”
In fact, the university module – Interpreting Music Culture: Multimodality, MTV and the Eurovision – goes beyond the Eurovision to music culture as a whole, aiming to explore music resources and events critically.
“It’s looking at a phenomenon, in this case music culture, and applying a particular theory of communication and semiotics,” explained Jean-Paul De Lucca, director of the Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences, where the module is being offered. “Popular culture has been studied by some of the most important theorists over the years. The Eurovision is an interesting case study, but it’s a big leap from that to suggesting a whole course on the Eurovision itself.”
Dr De Lucca admitted to being surprised by the online uproar, and said that the unit was part of the approach taken by the Liberal Arts and Sciences programme as a whole and its effort to give students a “360-degree introduction” to different subjects.
“With the environment, for example, rather than taking an exclusively scientific, economic or legal approach, we have a unit looking at all these aspects,” he said. “One of the approaches we take is to look at phenomena, whatever they are.”
The programme currently welcomes some 200 students each semester, many taking units for their personal or professional development.
“The very fact that this module elicited all these reactions shows it’s worth analysing,” Dr De Lucca said. “The Eurovision is a social phenomenon and, to an extent, a political one.
“But, to be clear, the university is not ‘offering a course on the Eurovision’, unlike what a recent news headline suggested.”