Woman pursues Ph.D. in air guitar. Yes, you read that correctly - AIR GUITAR.

**Kevster** · 08-02-2005, 10:56 PM

I saw this on Fark: For those of you keeping score at home, that is one seal broken with six more to go, and the horsemen are mounting up.

News Linkage

Air head wants to get a PhD

AMANDA Griffiths is studying air guitar for her PhD.AMANDA Griffiths is studying air guitar for her PhD.

MEET madcap Amanda Griffiths of Chorlton, the PhD student who is studying for a doctorate - in air guitar.

Amanda is researching the phenomena of playing along to famous electric guitar solos with nothing more in your hands than a fistful of fresh air as part of her doctorate at the University of Salford.

And the 32-year-old is even a special guest at the Air Guitar World Championships held in Oulu, where she will give a lecture on the subject.

Her love of the invisible instrument first became serious in 2002 when she came fourth in the UK championships.

Her success inspired her to study the subject in more detail - leading to the invitation to attend the multi-national competition.

Amanda said: “It’s an honour to be asked to lecture at what is the biggest event in any air guitarist’s calendar.

“People travel from all over the world to compete and I can’t wait to meet them and find out what it is that drives them to play.

“I am really excited about the opportunity and I never thought studying the air guitar would allow me to travel to different parts of the world and meet fellow rockers.”

Whilst on the trip she will be accompanied by film-maker Scott Abraham and the pair are looking for sponsors to help make their dream of an air guitar rockumentary come true.

The pair are desperately seeking around £2000 to fund their project and are looking for anyone to help their cause.

Amanda said: “No donation is too small for us and we need all the money we can get.

“If anyone does come forward to help us we would be happy to promote their goods or services when on the trip.”

Scott, who has worked on programmes such as Coronation Street and Phoenix Nights, added: “Any level of investment would be most welcome at this stage."

# IF you can help, contact then Amanda on: 07977 250099 or Scott on: 07884 363591.
Christopher Brereton

First published by the South Manchester Reporter

**ShawnLee** · 08-03-2005, 12:29 AM

Dude, I could be a lecturer in this. They could have a professorship and chair position named after me.

**DarkFury** · 08-03-2005, 12:30 AM

WYLD STALLIONS!!!!!

**ArkiStan** · 08-03-2005, 10:05 AM

Oh, boy do we need a clip.

**ialsohaveadream** · 08-03-2005, 04:15 PM

Yeah, I wanted to get my master's in air guitar, but I didn't get a high enough GRE. They're very selective, those air guitar schools.

**bachviet** · 08-03-2005, 04:18 PM

Wth???

**Grafalgar** · 08-03-2005, 04:59 PM

Gotta love omitted information

I also saw it on fark, but counted on one of the forumites to do a bit more research on the matter. From one of the posts:

OK... she's not getting a Ph.D. for her skills in air guitaring. It's not like she's claiming that this is the equivalent of a Ph.D. in music composition or something.

She's studying air guitar as an aspect of Western popular culture. Essentially it's a Ph.D in cultural studies, or sociology, or cultural anthropology, or some combination thereof. While I'll admit it ain't exactly something that's likely to be of practical use to most people, it's still a legitimate area of study and (like any other) will provide some insight into why people do what they do.

When I was at UCI one of our Comp Sci PhD students based her thesis off of using games to teach and simulate Software Engineering principles. She ended up making a (quite fun) card based game. But if you just look at that one thing, you may say there's someone out there that's getting her PhD by playing cards. When it comes to grad students, there's more often than not a larger picture behind a seemingly irrelevant study

Kudos to her for finding something to study that she apparently enjoys a lot