Patrick Stewart, 61, has successfully defended his PhD thesis in architecture at the University of British Columbia, despite the fact that it was mostly written without any punctuation marks or capital letters or identifiable grammar.

The National Post reports that Stewart’s dissertation topic was “Indigenous Architecture through Indigenous Knowledge.” Part of that Indigenous Knowledge, it seems, was Stewart’s determination to write in the style of a 19 year-old who has only recently discovered ee cummings. In fact! Here’s a sample:

“in my defense my style of writing is not laziness or lack of knowledge of proper usage of the english language it is a form of grammatical resistance as a deconstructionist in the manner of many writers especially american poet ee cummings he graduated with a master degree in english from harvard university and they called him experimental and innovative not words likely to be used to describe an indigenous writer who breaks all the rules of writing (the behavioural ethics board at the university of british columbia suggested that i hire an editor as it appeared that i did not know the english language) times though they are changing”

“Stewart explains that he ‘wanted to make a point about aboriginal culture, colonialism, and ‘the blind acceptance of English language conventions in academia,’” the National Post adds.

Congratulations to Patrick Stewart on his newly earned PhD.

The fact that his thesis was not originally published on Thought Catalog is the biggest shock of all.

[National Post via Inside Higher Ed. Pic via]

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