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It's back-to-school time, and there's at least one lucky NYU grad student who'll be spending the week doing more than just contemplating the best angle from which to hit the Bobst library floor. A friend passed along an e-mail from the NYU History department which indicates that Shakira (in the adorable words of the e-mail, "yes, that Shakira") needs a tutor in American History for the week. This isn't exactly shocking: As USA Today reported last year,

For her upcoming world tour, she has decided to skip the personal trainer and masseur and instead made the surprising decision to hire a history professor for in-the-field tutorials. "We're getting someone on sabbatical," manager Ceci Kurzman says, "so that each place we go she can get a history lesson."

We're going to go against our usual dickheaded grain here and say we find this kind of admirable, but only so long as it doesn't become a trend. The idea of Jessica Simpson dispensing her newly-learned wisdom on the Era of Good Feelings is almost too much to bear.

Shakira it up with Shakira [USA Today]