Includes bibliographical references and index.

If you think academia is a prestigious place of serious, erudite professors, think again. Academia Obscura is a glimpse behind closed study doors -- welcome to the eccentric and slightly unhinged world of academia. Leave your tweed jacket by the door. Step inside the ivory tower and let Glen Wright guide you on a journey through the weird, wonderful and often bizarre history of academe, from the very earliest in-jokes of medieval scribes. Learn how one cat tricked some of the greatest minds into awarding it tenure, how Colonel Gaddafi co-authored a thesis and why some rats wear polyester trousers. This irreverent book filled with levitating frogs, defecating penguins and super-specific scientific research shows you the rather sillier side of scholarly life. Academics will never take themselves too seriously again. And neither will anyone else.