Starting in January, students at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville can take an American history class focused on the Grand Theft Auto series. The course was reportedly planned to include GTA 6 before it was delayed to May 26, 2026.
IGN spoke with history professor Tore Olsson about the class that’s officially called Grand Theft America: US History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games. The teacher discussed how popular video games can mold our real-world views, like Ghost of Tsushima with feudal Japan. With that in mind, “the class is much more about American history than the games themselves, but GTA provides the framework that structures our exploration of the past,” Olsson said. “My hope is that after the class, students will never look at these games, or modern America, the same again.”
Olsson is “perhaps most excited to use San Andreas” as a teaching tool from the GTA series, as it’s set in a fictional Los Angeles. “It’s probably obvious to many that this drama is an allusion to the LA Riots of April and May 1992, one of the most significant turning points in contemporary U.S. history, but also one that is widely misunderstood,” the professor said. “Explaining the origins and meaning of this violent convulsion is a key goal of my class.”