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One of the most reputable colleges in America is now offering the most interesting of courses. Harvard University has just announced a seminar described as a Games of Thrones history class.
Sounds pretty ironic – the most distinguished of people studying a mythical TV show. However, this is not exactly the case. Apparently the course is titled: “The Real Game of Thrones: From Modern Myths to Medieval Models”. So rather than the class being entirely centered on the show, it is instead used as simply a comparison in order to teach historical context. The show name-dropping is also used in the hopes of hooking people to be curious about taking the class.
One of the professors, Sean Gilsdorf, notes:
“‘Game of Thrones’ does dramatize nicely some fundamental things going on in medieval courts.
Tensions between a queen and the younger women who marry their sons are some “Real Housewives of 10th-century Germany” kind of thing, where you see these women going after each other.”
Another co-professor, Racha Kirakosian, further explains:
“When I read medieval verse epics with my students, they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s like in Game of Thrones’.
No, if anything at all, it’s the other way around.
Isn’t it partly our job [as professors] to use that interest and go deeper?”
It honestly sounds like a very efficient way of learning. If you can get a bunch of college kids to be extremely interested in history, all while simultaneously using Games of Thrones as a teaching device, you’ve really mastered the art of education.
In any case, I’m sure many Harvard kids are die-hard Thronies anyways so it’s probably about time a class like this was introduced.
Is all this talk about GoT making you even more excited for season 7? Click here to watch the mind-blowing trailer.
