The "Game of Thrones" is now a course at the University of California, Berkeley.
You can now take an entire course on "Game of Thrones" at UC Berkeley https://t.co/CpFhCZnLO4 pic.twitter.com/3Z2fiNqj0P
— Mashable (@mashable) August 14, 2015
A six week course, "Film Genre: Game of Thrones," examines the reputation of the show, its history, religion, sex, violence, treatment of women, power and politics, with the class even studying real life Dire Wolf skulls, according to MTV. The "Game of Thrones" course reportedly also includes philosophers such as Rousseau and Foucault as mandatory readings.
UC Berkeley is offering a new course on #GameofThrones https://t.co/8zAFryUweF via @mashable pic.twitter.com/9yAaCsiKjh — Dailymotion (@DailymotionUSA) August 17, 2015
In the official site of UC Berkeley justified offering the "Game of Thrones" course:
"Game of Thrones is a worldwide phenomenon. Derived from a series of bestselling novels by George R.R. Martin, it is one of the most popular shows on television, the most pirated show on the web, and a critical darling, courting both a wide demographic of fans and more than its fair share of controversy. This course will examine how and why Game of Thrones achieved such notoriety and popularity. Its success was not so much a fluke but a perfect storm of influences and circumstances on the one hand and a fully realized aesthetic and thematic vision on the other."
The "Game of Thrones" course was created in 2011 by Justin Vaccaro, a Ph.D. candidate, who came up with the idea shortly following the first season of the show's premiere, according to The Inquisitr.
Vaccaro told Tech Times what engaged him to offer the "Game of Thrones" course.
"Its whole attitude about a world that is morally complicated, and where answers don't come easily or at all, is strangely very compelling and strangely reassuring," Vaccaro said.
The "Game of Thrones" course has now a huge number of enrolees. This year is reportedly his highest summer enrollment since 2011, with 27 students taking the class.
Last spring, Northern Illinois University also offered a similar course named "Game of Thrones, Television and Medieval History," according to USA Today.
