Harvard will offer now a course based on ‘Game of Thrones’

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Finally, a way to justify all those hours spent binge-watching HBO.

Pulling a page from University of California, Berkeley’s course roster, Harvard University will use the blood, guts, and political intrigue of Game of Thrones to draw students into the world of medieval studies.

Per a piece from Time on the course offering, “The Real Game of Thrones: From Modern Myths to Medieval Models” will use George R.R. Martin’s book series and its subsequent HBO show to explore what the show gets right and wrong about our own medieval times.

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From a course description shared with Time,

[The class will explore how the series] “echoes and adapts, as well as distorts the history and culture of the ‘medieval world’ of Eurasia from c. 400 to 1500 CE” by exploring “a set of archetypal characters at the heart of Game of Thrones the king, the good wife, the second son, the adventurer, and so on with distinct analogues in medieval history, literature, religion, and legend.”

Harvard’s medieval studies professors hope that the 100-level course can leverage student interest in Game of Thrones into a greater interest in the humanities. As Time noted, student interest in this area of study has waned in recent years, per an American Academy of Arts & Sciences study that reported an 8.7 percent decline in bachelor’s degrees awarded in this subject area between 2012 and 2014.

Harvard is far from the first to lure its students into courses with Game of Thrones-adjacentsubject matter in fact, UC Berkeley has offered multiple courses that draw inspiration from the series. In 2015, it offered a film studies course, “Film Genre: Game of Thrones“ centered on the show’s theatrical themes.

And this summer, the school will offer a six-week course titled “The Linguistics of Game of Thrones and the Art of Language Invention,” taught by Dothraki creator David J. Peterson.

WATCH: Breaking down the brilliance of ‘Battle of the Bastards’

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