Calm Down, Academia, Angelina Jolie-Pitt Is The Best Visiting Professor EVER

The London School of Economics recently announced Angelina Jolie-Pitt will be a visiting professor of practice this semester. LSE is a pretty prestigious school, touting alumni such as Princess Beatrice, Mick Jagger, 32 world leaders, and 14 Nobel Peace Prize winners. Because of this prestige, very few of the faculty or students are responding positively to her nomination.

Here's why everyone should be excited to have Angelina Jolie-Pitt as a professor.

Jolie-Pitt's course is called "Women, Peace, and Security". The other professors are world leaders and advocates for universal women's rights. The first professor is Lord William Hague, who Jolie-Pitt worked with when he was the U.K. Foreign Secretary. The second professor is Director of International Advocacy at Amnesty International, Jane Connors. The third professor is Secretary General of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.  Madeleine Rees, OBE.

Yes, she is a celebrity, but there is no substance to the bribery rumors. There are a lot of jilted professors who are accusing her of it on Twitter. 

 The anger at her lack of academic qualifications is understandable, mainly because there is only a small pot of academic funding available and perhaps someone more scholarly could have been chosen for the position instead of an actress-turned-humanitarian. All of the other professors selected hold at least a graduate degree of some sort. The problem with holding that against Jolie-Pitt is that being a visiting professor does not necessarily require a degree as long as the visiting professor is an established expert in the field AND contributes to the university's intellectual endeavors in that field. 

Here are the reasons why Angelina Jolie-Pitt deserves to be taken seriously as an expert humanitarian and deserves this job.

This is a photo of Angelina Jolie-Pitt (with her fellow professor, William Hague) on a United Nations trip to the Congo to discuss plans to end rape and genital mutilation in warzones. She's listened to hours of testimonies from women and children who have experienced these brutalities while living with the fear of losing their lives to war. And that is just one of DOZENS of conflict situations that she has gone to. 

Angelina works with refugee women by collecting their testimonies and delivering them before international policymakers to  find permanent solutions for displaced families. She herself has delivered multiple speeches before the EU and the UN on the situation of refugees.

Let's remember, Angelina used to make films nonstop, or 3-4 blockbuster films per year (which is a lot).  Now she averages one movie per year, and she has helped produce numerous documentaries that are expose injustices against women around the world. Her next documentary is "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" about the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.

The Jolie Pitt Family has six kids, three of whom are  adopted; Zahara, Pax and Maddox were all adopted from extremely poor refugee situations in Ethiopia, Vietnam and Cambodia. The family is also preparing to adopt a Syrian refugee orphan. 

Angelina started making trips to Syria, and the refugee camps in surrounding countries, in 2011. She has made 11 trips since then, which is more than most world leaders (including President Obama).  By the way, she's also delivered several UN talks on the Syrian refugee crisis and especially the amount of sexual assault on women has increased as the situation worsens.

How long has Angelina Jolie been doing humanitarian works for the UN? 5 years? NOPE. She has been at it for FIFTEEN YEARS. And her position is called "Professor of Practice" and she has CLEARLY been practicing.

Follow the paper trail. Angelina has donated $5 million to the UN Refugee agency, and she donated $8 million in 2006 alone.  She also bought part of the rainforest to protect it.  Also, she's taking no salary with the professor position.

Celebrity teacher means enrollment is going to go WAY up. With students scrambling to get a seat in Professor Jolie-Pitt's class, that means more tuition money is coming in AND more donors are interesting in creating research grants and donating buildings for the university, which can bring in the visiting professors that have as many lofty degrees as one's heart desires.

Let's say you played your cards right, go to office hours, and hang out with Professor Angie. That alone would get you IN to SO many circles it is RIDICULOUS. Maybe she doesn't have a Ph.D, but she knows everyone you NEED to know if you want to make it in international politics (or entertainment!). I would go just to meet Brad Pitt! 

"What?! That uneducated actress donated an entire SCHOOL to a university?" Yes, shrill academics, yes she did. She believes in her cause and so she put her money where her mouth is and created a center that combines Political Science, Gender Studies, and a slew of other interdisciplinary fields in order to educate people on how women are adversely affected in content areas. 

She's got a cornucopia of experiences that any student would be happy to learn from, and she would be an amazing teacher and perfect writer for a letter of recommendation.