Indiana Jones isn’t just a rugged adventurer, combing his way through jungles and dangerous ancient temples in search of mythical treasure. Most fans know the iconic character is an accomplished archeologist with a doctorate in his profession who has held multiple teaching positions throughout his movie career. Dr. Jones makes archeology look exciting as he travels across the globe finding lost treasures and bringing them to museums. It’s no wonder Harrison Ford’s portrayal has inspired several movies in the same genre.
In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the famed professor is still lecturing despite his superiors trying to make him retire (and despite himself — my man does not look like he’s having fun). Even a cynical, world-weary Indiana Jones would make for a better lecturer than many college teachers, but where does Indy even teach (and can we enroll in a class)?
Dr. Jones has taught at multiple, mostly fictional, schools
After studying archaeology at the University of Chicago, Henry Walton Jones Jr. traveled to France, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Linguistics. Sometime after this, he earned a doctorate in archaeology from an unnamed school and taught at London University in the 1920s before securing a teaching position at Marshall College, a fictional university and liberal arts college located in Bedford, Connecticut.
During this time, his mentor Abner Ravenwood asked Indy to join him in finding the Ark of the Covenant. After that expedition, Dr. Jones taught at Princeton for a few years in the early 1930s.
He would return to Marshall before 1936 before leaving again a year or two later for (the also fictional) Barnett College, an Ivy League school in Fairfield, New York. Jones taught at the school until at least 1947 but had returned to his former position at Marshall by the mid-1950s.
Where was Indiana Jones most recently teaching?
In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Jones was teaching archaeology at Hunter College. Sometime between the late 1950s and 1969, Jones left his position at Marshall for a position at the real public university located in New York City. It’s unclear why the newest film’s writers felt Indy should switch schools this late in his career and it’s also unclear why Hunter was chosen.
If the Hunter College in the film is the same as the one in real life, my best guess is that Dr. Jones would have been teaching either anthropology or linguistics courses, based on the list of degrees the college currently offers. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones is fictional and we cannot sign up for one of his classes.
