International Politics in this World and Beyond

From Hogwarts and The Shire, to a Galaxy Far Far Away—you'll explore spellbinding political themes of widely popular fantasy fiction and their relationship to international issues confronting our world today in this 8-week course. Each unit starts with themes in the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars series and connects them with three critical topics: identity, violence and social control. In this college-level course, you'll examine:

• Globalization and how related technology advances transfigure theories and practices of collective identity (e.g., national, ethnic, gender, and ideological)
• Implications for how violence and exclusion are perpetrated and justified by state and non-state actors
• Contemporary state policies used to reassert firmer control over their populations, national identities, and porous borders

Through real-world topics on state sovereignty, political power, discrimination, the global war on terror, human rights, media consolidation, and technological advances—you'll immerse in an educational journey that plays out parallel narratives of good and evil, which are the foundations for the amazing stories created by J.K. Rowling, J.R.R.  Tolkien, and George Lucas.