California State University:
British Culture and Harry Potter
Host(s)
- California State University San Marcos
Countries:
- England
- Scotland
Links
Details (Bold and Orange are the categories)
- Study Abroad/Internship
- Undergraduate/Graduate
- Summer/Winter/Semester/Year
- Area:
- Humanities
- British Literature
- British Culture
Eligibility:
- All Students *I don’t think there is a requirement that you be part of CSU
Additional Notes:
- Sounds amazing!
- You aren’t just visiting the train station. . . you also get to check out places like Scotland Yard, Parliament, Warner Brother’s Studio, historic villages, Oxford University, etc.
Student Ramblings 
More information: this course is also open to students at other colleges & universities, as well as to non-students. We will travel through England and Scotland to visit and learn about the ways in which the culture and history of Great Britain shaped the Harry Potter novels and films, and the importance of cultural context in the Harry Potter narratives. Yes, we’ll see many Harry Potter-related sites, including taking a ride on the Jacobite steam train (used for the Hogwarts Express in the films) through the scenic Scottish Highlands and a visit to Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, where the films were created. The course includes all hotels, breakfasts, ground transportation (travel pass in London, chartered bus throughout the U.K.), admission charges to museums, castles, cathedrals, classroom sessions at various locations along the way, and a British guide from the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS) to lead the way. See the following website for more details about the itinerary (http://www.csusm.edu/…/studya…/UK%20Harry%20Potter.html) or contact me, Prof. Linda Pershing: Lpershing@csusm.edu.
There are serious and fascinating courses about many aspects of Harry Potter now offered at universities across the U.S. Students who grew up with the Harry Potter series engage in critical analysis of social inequality, the rich folklore and mythology that J.K. Rowling incorporated in the novels, the cultural constructions of (and commentary on) family, group, and societal relations, and much more. I teach an on-campus course of 120 students each semester, and my students read all seven novels plus additional scholarly articles, and do lots of writing, research, and analysis. Seeing the sites related to the books and films and learning more about the cultural heritage of Great Britain on this study-abroad course will encourage engaged learning — and it will be fun for Harry Potter fans, at the same time. Let’s hope learning doesn’t have to be dry, boring, and unrelated to our everyday lives to be seriously “academic.”