You Can Now Study ‘Game Of Thrones’ At Harvard University

Winter is coming early to Harvard University.

This fall, students at the Ivy League institution will be able to study how the fantasy world of Westeros relates to what life was really like in medieval times via a new “Game of Thrones”-themed class.

They’ll learn how author George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire book series and the HBO epic TV show it inspires “echoes and adapts, as well as distorts” the culture and history of the age, reports TIME.

As Littlefinger says:

“When I read medieval verse epics with my students, they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s like in ‘Game of Thrones,’” said Racha Kirakosian, an assistant professor of German and religion who is teaching the class.

“No, if anything at all, it’s the other way around,” she added. “Isn’t it partly our job (as professors) to use that interest and go deeper?”

Kirakosian will teach the “The Real Game of Thrones: From Modern Myths to Medieval Models” course alongside Professor Sean Gilsdorf, who lectures on medieval studies.

It follows similar classes offered by UC Berkeley and the University of Virginia.

Kirakosian hopes the “Game of Thrones” angle will prove an effective “recruitment tool” that encourages more students to sign up to medieval studies courses.

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