My alma mater just sent out a notice that there is a grant available for someone with a Ph.D. to teach at the Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology.

According to the notice, "the college has a particular interest in... C#, .NET, VB.NET, ASP, JAVA, ..."

Is this an April-fool's-month joke? C#? If you have a Ph.D., you should be an expert it something more on the scale of "Christianity" than "C#." .NET? VB.NET? These are products issued by American corporations within the last handful of years—and they're not exactly "enabling technologies" at that; more like attempts to collect a few current techniques under one brand.

Can you get a Ph.D. in "Coca-Cola"? How about "Altoids"? I want to be an expert in Altoids. Is there a College of Mints somewhere that can allow me to pursue that specialty?

I'm not sure whether to be disappointed in my alma mater, the Malta College..., or my field. All I know is that I'm disappointed.

UPDATE: On the bright side, here are some enticing titles from the upcoming North American Summer School for Logic, Language, and Information:

"The Generalization of Proofs and Calculations"
"Embedded Root Phenomena: Linguistic, Formal and Philosophical Aspects"
"Speaking of Events"
"Language Games and Evolution"
"Higher Order Grammar"
"Formal Foundations of Model-Theoretic Syntax"
"Classical Montague Grammar"