Baltimore University is now introducing Zombie courses as part of its curriculum.

The new course, which promises to "get you ready for a zombie apocalypse", invites students to devour classic zombie films and comics.

And instead of essays, they write horror scripts or draw storyboards for their ideal monster movie.

The Baltimore Sun newspaper has already dubbed the minor class, titled English 333, as "Zombie 101".

Jonathan Shorr, chairman of the university's school of communications design, said it was introduced to meet a demand for "interesting, off-the-wall" courses for a new minor in pop culture.

"It's a back door into a lot of subjects. They think they're taking this wacko zombie course, and they are," the BBC quoted him as saying.

"But on the way, they learn how literature and mass media work, and how they come to reflect our times," he stated.

The course will also explore two less academic themes: "blood and guts".

"We're going to be dealing with some of the truly disgusting stuff that's been done in horror over the years," Arnold Blumberg, author of Zombiemania, who teaches the course, said.

"I want to reinforce the degree to which this material can be found offensive by a lot of people.

"This is not fluffy bunny cartoon stuff. Bunnies might show up, but they'd probably be torn to pieces," he added. (ANI)