Intellectual interests outside of/completely unrelated to your field?

[ravenray]

I love this thread!

 

I majored in Linguistics and Comparative Literature in college.  So I love literature and reading.  I love classics, which makes me on the outside since it seems everyone loves modern, post-modern etc now.  But I also love historical fiction and fantasy.

 

I also love astronomy, geology, history, mythology (it is so interesting to see how myths can be so different across cultures that have had no contact with each other!  It's fascinating.), religions, ancient history, ancient culture, bird watching, and the science of nature.  

 

haha people think I'm crazy because I know all the lines to LOTR movies (extended version), but I'm not the only one!

 

When I'm not busy doing that or trying to get into grad school, I like photography and video-games (Skirim rocks!)

I also know all the words to the extended additions.  Tolkien lovers unite! 

[gr8pumpkin]

I also love comic art.  I'm working on a graphic novel.  I actually have a low-scale specialized publisher who has been waiting for me to finish it for two years.  Sigh.  I wish I had two or three more lives.

[Porshyen]

My "pet" interest is religious fundamentalism in America. I love reading books on the subject, articles, and analyzing religious material, websites, and organizations. 

Edited March 9, 2014 by Porshyen

[bsharpe269]

During undergrad, I studied math and spanish and also took lots of philosophy classes. I am really interested in all of those areas. I am in a bioinformatics masters program now and am very interested in bio, biochem, and programming. I will be applying to phd programs in biochem and biophysics.

 

I am also very interested interested in anthropology and international studies and learning other languages.

 

Like many people here, my interests are all over the place!

[TravelBug92]

I've actually been debating on whether I want to, at some point, actually get a degree in marine biology on top of my psychology degrees. I'm also extremely interested in learning new languages, or enhancing my proficiency in Spanish and Mandarin. Who knows, maybe I'll end up being a scientist who studies the psychology of dolphins in China (bahaha). 

[gr8pumpkin]

My "pet" interest is religious fundamentalism in America. I love reading books on the subject, articles, and analyzing religious material, websites, and organizations. 

 

I have a similar interest in cults.  I've lost several family members to them over the years, alas.  

[IRToni]

That's awesome! I'm a mathematics major myself and it makes me pretty happy when I see people outside of the field who find it fascinating. What sort of things in math do you like to read about? 

 

I'm really into Numbers theory (ever since I was in high school... I was that kid!), but have been reading more topology stuff recently.

[Palius1991]

Where has this topic been all of my life? I thought I was all alone. My first interest has always been to write the Great American Novel, most likely in the science-fantasy genre, because you can truly express the big ideas in fantasy and science fiction, and communicate them more effectively than in a modern setting, at least in my opinion.

 

I love playing music in a band, well, mainly playing the drums, singing, and songwriting. I began my undergraduate degree in anthropology, the next year I switched to psychology, and I finally made up my mind to study health informatics. My graduate degree will be in organizational management with a specialization in health care administration. I have also thought about being a college professor, a medical researcher, or even a physician. I want to do it all, but that is what life is about, isn't it? I love reading, I love discovering things, and I just love learning.

 

I may eventually get a PhD in health care administration, or psychology, but that can wait for a few more years.

[bakalamba]

My Bachelors was in Fine Art, and now I've ended up studying Education, which is certainly engaging both in its theory and practice, but I miss the aesthetics and freeplay of art. I watch a lot of film, used to make very amateur documentary shorts, and dream about using media ethnography in my future academic work.

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned language learning. I wouldn't label it as an interest at this point, but just an effort against relapsing - I picked up a language while in the field and want to keep it (it's in the Bantu language family), learn a second, as well as try to pick up a Romance language. Memrise has become as routine as morning coffee in this pursuit.

 

I used to write, I still do, and I feel if I don't occasionally engage in extracurricular writing, my inner thoughts will ossify into technical language. Yikes.

[babycakes]

I feel amateurish for saying this, but I really like learning about EVERYTHING with the exception of physics and theoretical math. If I had all the money in the world I would have been a double biology (with neurobiology & physiology specialization) and art major with a german minor. I'd probably spend my whole life in school. I just ended up with the neuro-phys and a sprinkling of the other two (no minors in either). I just took just about every other course that appealed to me and graduated with a ridiculous number of credits in a number of depts. I love to discuss and learn about just about every other field there is so now I am one of those obnoxious open books of "do you knows" about every other topic. I am currently entering education because of my interest in topics pertaining to sociology and psychology. If dreams do come true, I would love to pursue a PhD pertaining to how socioeconomic background affects neural development and how it impacts education. I feel like because I like so many topics I'm seen as a scatterbrain amateur not fit for academia lulssss... 

 

if I'm not dorking out about hard and social sciences, I love film and literature as well. You don't know how satisfying it is after your 4 credit 400 level physiology classes it is to take a German film class and just write about Aguirre. 

 

Now whether or not I'm any good at German is up in the air, and if my art skills necessarily equate to earning a degree in it (I would say I was darn good and rivaled the top of my art classes...) I think what's wonderful about life is that it's so eclectic and variable that under few circumstances you end up with ONE thing to obsess about and no access to anything else. I would be sad if I ended up on a desert island with one research project and nothing else. 

[VulpesZerda]

Psychology.  Especially health behaviour theories.  Why do people continue to do things they know are bad for them, and why don't they do things that they know are good for them?

 

This is exactly what I study! Of course there are many factors that play a role here. But I like to approach it from a social angle, so thinking about things like social influence, peer pressure, attitudes/beliefs about the behavior. Adolescents are particularly interesting to me because their frontal cortex isn't developed so they have all these crazy impulses. I like the Prototype Willingness Model. I think about behaviors such as: going into a tanning booth, texting and driving, smoking, and even flossing your teeth.

 

As far as my unrelated interests, I have always loved star-gazing and have gotten much better at it lately. So now that I'm pretty good with constellations and planets, I'm digging a little deeper into astronomy and bought some cool books. Lots of it goes way over my head, of course.

 

My mom thought I was going to be a marine biologist. I have always loved animals, especially those of the sea. I'm still an undergrad and am lucky to be in an amazing course right now that's all about life in the sea and current environmental issues related to the sea. Environmental issues are very important to me and as a psych major I always think about how we can get people to care about the environment more?!

 

Let's see...then there's the birds. I am often called a "bird nerd" because of my bird-watching obsession. My favorite aspect of this hobby is learning bird calls/songs. Just love it!

 

And to tie all of these things together, I love photography. So I (try to) take photos of the moon/sky (astrophotography) and of the birds, too!

[personalityresearcher]

I like math. It's like mental masturbation. I really liked all my Calc courses.

[maelia8]

I'm a historian/Germanist by academic trade, but I also have a strong interest and some experience in ESL teaching, which was going to be my alternate path if that whole humanities Ph.D. thing didn't pan out. After years of designing costumes for anime conventions, I also could see myself formally studying costume design and becoming a professional seamstress, and I also cherished a dream of becoming a translator/interpreter and working for the state department … I wish I had multiple lives to live out all of my professional fantasies!

[personalityresearcher]

Oh. I'm also mildly to moderately obsessed with history. More specifically biographies - like really out there historical figures...Also North Korea.

[angelperak]

My Bachelors was in Fine Art, and now I've ended up studying Education, which is certainly engaging both in its theory and practice, but I miss the aesthetics and freeplay of art. I watch a lot of film, used to make very amateur documentary shorts, and dream about using media ethnography in my future academic work.

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned language learning. I wouldn't label it as an interest at this point, but just an effort against relapsing - I picked up a language while in the field and want to keep it (it's in the Bantu language family), learn a second, as well as try to pick up a Romance language. Memrise has become as routine as morning coffee in this pursuit.

 

I used to write, I still do, and I feel if I don't occasionally engage in extracurricular writing, my inner thoughts will ossify into technical language. Yikes.

 

I had never heard of Memrise before this post. Now I'll be lost in its courses forever! I think I'll start with Chinese and Arabic...thanks for giving me a new obsession

[victorydance]

I am interested in a ridiculous amount of things:

 

1) Russian Literature. I have a list of like 50 Russian classics that I am supposed to get through before I die, I am probably through about a 1/4 of them. I am a big fan of Dostoevsky and Gogol.

 

2) Geology. I am interested in how certain rock formations come about, the processes of the earth's crust, different kind of rocks, ect. Took a few geology classes as electives during my undergrad.

 

3) Spanish and Portuguese Language. I am at an intermediate level of Spanish and a beginner level of Portuguese.

 

4) History. Particularly interested in Latin American history, both pre-Columbian and post-colonial.

 

Beyond that, I am interested in things like chemistry, travel, ecology, geography, human behaviour, sustainable development, energy, ect. but I wouldn't consider these subjects as something I am profoundly interested in.

 

I think I could definitely be an anthropologist in another life.

Edited April 29, 2014 by HopefulComparativist

[kimmibeans]

I studied Biology with a minor in Anthropology in college, but I absolutely love studying art history as well as literature and film media theory and criticism.

[gellert]

Philosophy is related to my field, but I read a lot even in the branches of philosophy which aren't.  I'm also well-read as far as medical journals go and am really interested in learning foreign languages (I speak seven).

 

eta: Oh, and I write novels.  That's my "Batman job."

Edited April 29, 2014 by gellert

[juilletmercredi]

I'm interested in the history of conflict, specifically armed conflict during the mid to late 20th century.  I'm particularly fascinated with World War II, but most recently I was reading about the Yugoslav Wars (and specifically the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina).  I'm a social-health psychologist, so that has nothing to do with my field (well, not directly).

I also am really interested in the ethics of human experimentation and pharmaceutical trials/approval.  Oh, and I am a total astronomy nerd.  I've been watching Cosmos with my husband and we stare at the television like two toddlers who want to be astronauts, lol.  (He was an aerospace engineering major who's switched to statistics, but he's still hooked).

[thedig13]

I am studying 20th-century US history.

 

I'm a fan of creative literature, especially material that plays with metafiction and narrative reflexivity. From an intellectual standpoint, the idea of layered storytelling and/or interacting hierarchies of reality (and all of their implications) really excites me.

 

I also appreciate linguistics and language-related humor.

[Palius1991]

Intellectual interests are too plentiful to choose just one. I also love history, science, sociology, comparative religion, politics, and mythology. One of my favorite authors is Joseph Campbell, because his books on the mythological underpinnings of human psychology are absolutely brilliant. We see mythological underpinnings expressed in every aspect of human existence from architecture, music, relationships, scientific inquiry, religious expression, art, etc. I mean, we named the  planets in our solar system after ancient gods, in addition to many other celestial bodies. I also like Carl Jung and his pioneering works on the value of mythology in relation to psychology in the form of the collective unconscious. Jung's work lead to terms we, today, take for granted, such as introvert and extrovert.

[reinhard]

History, actually many things in the social "sciences".

[harrisonfjord]

I am so glad someone started a thread on this! 

 

My background is in psychology, but I am obsessed with philosophy, specifically the philosophy of neuroscience. I am a huge fan of Ramanchandran and Oliver Sacks.  I am also interested in physics and math but I have never been especially talented in either of those fields. I absolutely love literature and mythology, but I think that is a product of my high school I.B. curriculum, lol. I still have my trusty Edith Hamilton's mythology book.

[victorydance]

History, actually many things in the social "sciences".

 

Sheldon Cooper, is that you?

 

BTW, history isn't a social science.

Edited May 15, 2014 by HopefulComparativist

[1WheeledGeo]

Every time something fails on my car, I become increasingly interested in auto repair and maintenance. Say what you will, but this is definitely an intellectual pursuit.