UVic English and Law are offering courses designed around Rachel Reid’s novel series ‘Game Changers’ and Jacob Tierney’s hit television adaptation ‘Heated Rivalry’
Photo via Bell Media.
In the upcoming fall semester, UVic will offer students two courses that have been adapted to use Rachel Reid’s book series Game Changers and Jacob Tierney’s screen adaptation, Heated Rivalry, as the main course texts.
Both courses have already had their available seats filled.
LAW357: Queering Law seminar, is a 24-seat upper-year law course taught by Gillian Calder, which she describes to be “about the way that law regulates the lives of queer people.”
She explained that in previous years, students have studied a singular legal judgement over an entire semester, whereas this year, the television series Heated Rivalry will be the primary text, with additional relevant readings each week.
In an interview with the Martlet, Calder shared some of the many legal implications in Heated Rivalry that the class will study — and the real-world legal issues those implications will be grounded to.
One focus in the course will be consent, and Calder plans to use the Hockey Canada sexual assault case that went to trial last summer as a case study.
Other real-world issues the class will look at include Alberta’s Bill-29, which prohibits trans women and girls from competing in women’s sports leagues, and the decision of the International Olympic Committee to limit eligibility for the women’s sports category to “biological females,” to be determined through genetic screening.
Though she acknowledged the UVic Law curriculum as diverse and inclusive, Calder said that “queer issues are not as well integrated throughout the curriculum.”
“Giving students a place where they can dial down into the questions of how lives are regulated in Canada through case law and legislation and other means, I think is quite important.”
She also highlighted that the protagonist Ilya Rosonov, portrayed by Connor Storrie, is Russian. Though homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, the government has implemented several laws that discriminate against 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
Calder said that the class will also discuss issues of displacement, immigration, and borders.
“Part of what all legal educators are doing is trying to ensure that the next generation of law folk have all the skills and competencies needed to be good legal advocates,” Calder said.
She believes that teaching through storytelling and popular culture challenges students to be “the empathetic, creative, emotionally intelligent lawyers that we need in this world.”
The other course being offered is ENSH321: Special Topics in Authors on Screen, a 112-seat upper-year English course, which examines screen adaptations of various authors’ work. ENSH321 has been offered to students since the English department curriculum renewal in the summer of 2023.
In the 2026 spring term, Dr. Janice Niemann taught ENSH222: Erotic Literature. She said that she watched Heated Rivalry in December and decided to rearrange her syllabus only a few days before classes began — including Heated Rivalry as an example of contemporary erotic literature.
“I’ve taught a mini, week-and-a-half long version of this before, and students responded so well to it,” she said.
She explained that the Faculty of Humanities and the Department of English recognized the “continued interest around the world in Heated Rivalry,” and asked her to build and teach a dedicated course on the series.
Niemann said that she expanded the week of material from ENSH222 into the 12-week ENSH321: Authors on Screen – Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry.
The class will study both Rachel Reid’s novels and Jacob Tierney’s television show, discussing many topics, from formal adaptation theory to the soundtrack and fan-fiction.
Niemann will use different theoretical frameworks or methods, such as queer theory, masculinity studies, and critical race theory to “analyze both the show itself and the social media, pop-culture phenomenon.
“I don’t know if we could talk about heated rivalry without the queer joy,” Niemann said. She pointed to the “bury your gays” trope, in which LGBTQ+ characters are viewed as more expendable and whose storylines often end in death.
“That is a horrifying thing for queer people … to see, because they’re seeing themselves represented on screen in the context of violence, and Rachel Reid doesn’t do that … her queer characters survive and thrive.”
