05 Feb 2017

Flashback to my second year at university, when our Anthropology class had a guest lecturer. She strolled into the room dressed as Ash Ketchum from Pokémon and explained that she was doing her PhD on cosplay: the art of enacting and dressing up as characters. That day, I realised that anything can be worthy of study, and it is possible to pursue your most obscure interests at university.

One of the wonderful things about a Bachelor of Arts is the freedom it gives you to explore those endless possibilities. Its flexibility means that you can learn a bit about almost everything, from dinner parties in Ancient Rome to the ethical intricacies of futuristic genetic engineering.

For me, this freedom took full flight during my Honours year. Honours is a one‐year program that you can undertake after your basic undergraduate degree. Normally, it will involve some coursework as well as a lengthy thesis on any topic of your choice. Honours can be used as a transitional stage before Masters, or as a final scholarly flourish before you wave goodbye to tertiary education. It was the latter in my case, and naturally, I wanted to go out with a bang. So I chose to write my 15,000‐word English thesis on my favourite book series of all time: Harry Potter.

Studying something you love is a privilege which keeps your motivation and enthusiasm running high, but how exactly do you do it? If your primary interests aren’t conventionally academic, how do you take something like Harry Potter and make it academic?

Think about which academic subjects or themes enthral you, and apply those to your chosen area of study. I’m fascinated by moral philosophy – especially the question of good and evil. Luckily, that theme was a perfect fit for Harry Potter. You can probably dream up a bunch of other combinations. My friend is currently doing her own Honours thesis on Lord of the Rings and politics. You could do something on cosplay and identity, video games and gender studies, fashion and history… you get the idea.

Now that you have a vague concept for your project, you’ll need to refine it into a question that you want to answer. This will require the dreaded ‘R’ word: research. You need to find out what’s already been said, then figure out what you want to say. While researching Harry Potter, I waded through swamps of theory, detailed analyses of Hogwarts houses, and even references to inappropriate innuendos in the books (don’t ask). I eventually discovered the main debate surrounding morality in Harry Potter: one camp said that the books were morally black‐and‐white; the other said they weren’t. I found myself agreeing with the second camp. And so I had my question: ‘How is morality represented in Harry Potter, and how it is more complex than it seems?’ Many books and articles later, I even had an answer to that question. So yes, research, research, research.

You’ll also need to answer another, more fundamental question: why are you studying what you’re studying? Everything has some kind of impact, either socially, culturally, or personally. I made the argument that Harry Potter has moral and social value because it shows us the grey areas of morality. My thesis had importance because it revealed what those grey areas were, and how they made us reconsider our own morals. Think about why your topic is important; then you and your audience will gain more from it.

You might worry that studying your passion will ‘ruin’ it for you, turning it into a chore. But that’s not necessarily the case. If done right, it can make you love it even more. Rereading Harry Potter with my critical lens on, I saw things that I never noticed before. I now see that J. K. Rowling’s snake metaphors cleverly symbolise Harry’s fears about his own evil potential. I now appreciate Dumbledore not simply as a twinkly‐eyed do‐gooder, but as a manipulative mastermind who twists our intuitive grasp of ‘good’ and ‘right’. Honours year deepened my understanding and appreciation of Harry Potter. As a bonus, I wound up getting First Class Honours for my work, so the venture paid off grades‐wise too. Studying your greatest interests at university can be rewarding in more than one way.

Don’t be afraid to go after what you want in your academic life. Whether your passion is parkour, anime, witchcraft and wizardry, or something else entirely, you can bet there’s already a committed body of work on it – and it’s waiting for your contribution.

Written by Amanda Li