Motorcycle Culture Course At The University of Arizona
Last Updated: March 4th, 2024
Welcome, everyone, my name is Bill Seltzer with TEAM Arizona and today I have with me Eddy White, he’s an associate professor at the University of Arizona and he has designed an incredibly cool course at the U of A. But before we talk about that course, I want to learn a little bit more about Eddy and hear how motorcycling fits into his world. So Eddy, who are you?
Um, hi everybody, my name is Eddy White and I came to motorcycling late and when I moved to Arizona. I didn’t have much interest, really, to be a motorcyclist in my younger days.
But anyway, I used to take a bus into the university and I’m sitting in the back of the bus and I’m seeing all these cool motorcycles on the road and I’m like, “Man, that must be great!” And literally, a couple years after I moved here I signed up and did a course and I bought a motorcycle a couple of weeks after that. So coming to Arizona is when I really got into motorcycles.
I teach in the Public and Applied Humanities Department, so I teach there and develop some courses for them. One of them being a motorcycle culture course.
I was developing a motorcycle course, and it sometimes, it takes awhile from idea for actually the course to appear in the calendar.
But anyway, the motorcycle I had I ended up selling the motorcycle, so in the fall of last year the course got approved and its coming closer and closer and I didn’t have a motorcycle. And, uh, I said to myself, “Are you gonna teach the motorcycle culture course and you don’t have a motorcycle?”
So anyway, I ended up buying a new motorcycle…buying a used motorcycle from Craigslist and, uh, started riding it. And actually, I remember going through an intersection and kind of creeping my way through an intersection and I thought to myself, “That sucked how you did that…that was pretty awful. And it was like, you need to take a riding course and start working on your skills.” And I took a TEAM Arizona Advanced course and it was exactly what I needed.
ABOUT THE COURSE
Titled, “Motorcycle Culture: Free Spirits, Easy Riders and the Human Experience”, this course is designed to look at the motorcycle’s effect on Americans. Here is the course description:
The motorcycle is a global icon, an international symbol of a daring, enviable, sometimes even reckless lifestyle of freedom, adventure, and rebellion.
This course explores motorcycle culture around the world, and is intended for anyone interested in the human experience, motorcycles, or who is keen to consider the implications of their lifestyle choices.
We examine the facts, myths, and legends surrounding the motorcycle, as well as the ideologies of those who love to ride.
To find the course on the University of Arizona calendar, simply visit:
https://studentcenter.arizona.edu/app/ui/public/search
Type in Keyword: motorcycle
