Journalism professor Craig Seymour owes his career to male strippers.

The 39-year old academic wrote his master's thesis on the cultural economics of the profession - it was called "Desire and Dollar Bills: An Ethnography of a Gay Male Striptease Club in Washington, D.C." - and later went on to pay for his Ph.D. by gyrating himself.

Though the money definitely helped matters, Seymour insists he didn't do it simply for the dough: "It was about feeling insecure about myself." Apparently Seymour feels secure about himself enough to tell all - he's releasing a memoir on his experience, All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.

Now that he's wrapped a stint in Dartmouth's English department, Seymour's headed to Northern Illinois University, where he hopes to get tenure. At least he has a backup plan if it doesn't work out.