Muggles at Western University are getting schooled in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The London campus is abuzz about the new second-year English class studying British author J.K. Rowling’s seven-part Harry Potter series.

The Many Faces of Harry Potter is just one of a handful of quirky classes being offered at Western, where students can take courses on everything from vampires and Japanese pop culture to how weddings are portrayed in the media.

Some call them bird courses, others say they’re a great way to balance out dry timetables filled with engineering, business and sciences.

“It is important to offer students choice in programs so that they can tailor their studies to their academic interests,” said Lori Gribbon, director of undergraduate recruitment and admissions.

Founded in 1878 to offer education in arts, divinity, law and medicine, Western has more than 1,200 undergraduate programs.

Debuting next year, the Many Faces of Harry Potter is the brainchild of English professor Gabrielle Ceraldi.

“I’ve definitely known how much eagerness there is for the course because I’ve had students begging me for it for years,” Ceraldi said.

Competition to get into the 100-seat class is expected to be fiercer than a match of quidditch. And the English department is looking at expanding the class.

So what exactly will students do in the class?

Unfortunately, aspiring wizards and witches expecting to pass their days casting spells and learning to fly are out of luck.

“In a lot of ways it will really be like any other English course, where there will be basic principles of reading and writing that we are just addressing through the medium of this particular series of books,” Ceraldi said.

Third-year English student Natalie Fuerth, 21, hopes to land a spot in the new Harry Potter course.

“My English professors will probably be ashamed of me for saying this, but I think J.K. Rowling is modern-day Shakespeare,” Fuerth said.

dale.carruthers@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/DaleatLFPress

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A sampling of quirky Western classes

Forever Young: Fang-Ophilia in Contemporary Media Culture: An exploration of the evolution of the vampire in contemporary media as a construction of an ideal consumer — forever young, beautiful and driven to consume.

Gender, Race & Class in Wedding Media: A critical examination of the relationship between gender and class as represented in wedding media, including television, film, magazines and advertising.

Bubble, Pop, Electric: Japanese Visual and Technoculture: An exploration of growing Japanese influence of contemporary visual and technoculture, known as J-Pop, that will consider how the Japanese aesthetic is changing the West’s approach and design to technology.