Is anyone else disappointed that Rowling was not mentioned in the CFP list below of “women authors,” papers about whom will be “warmly welcomed”? The keynote speaker is worth traveling for, though, and I would love to see some of our HogwartsProfessor readers and writers face to face. Lemmeno in the comment boxes or by email if you are thinking of going, especially if you’d be interested in a Rowling panel discussion…

WOMEN READING / READING WOMEN: Call For Papers  

Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature regional meeting  

September 29-October 1, 2022  

John Brown University, Siloam Springs, Arkansas  

This conference theme is inspired by the artist Mary Cassatt’s paintings of girls and mothers with books, in particular “The Reader” on display at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (Early conference attendees will have the opportunity to tour Crystal Bridges.)

Papers on women authors such as Marilynne Robinson, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Flannery O’Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, Charlotte Bronte, Dorothy Sayers, and Mary Shelley are warmly welcomed, as are topics that explore women’s representation in painting, film, or literature, particularly where such representations intersect with Christianity or other religions. Papers dealing with the changing nature of reading and the teaching of literature (Kindle versus print materials; the hybrid classroom) are also welcome.  

The keynote speaker for this conference is Wheaton College’s Dr. Crystal Downing, Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and author of five books, most recently Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers (2020). Downing’s presentation for SWCCL is entitled, “The Seeing of Sayers: A Scandalous Prophet.”

Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to:
•              The intersection of feminism and Christianity  •              Children’s literature  •              The effect of the male gaze on women’s representation in film  •              Masculinist representations of the feminine  •              Women and silence  •              The maternal in literature  •              Women students in the Zoom classroom	•     Women and the construction of the text  •     Restrictions on women’s reading  •     Early church mothers  •     BIPOC women in literary texts  •     Women in community, secular or sacred  •     The Pre-Raphaelites’ use of women subjects  •     Women’s spirituality in popular media

As always, SWCCL is open to other proposals concerning the relationship of Christianity and literature, including panel proposals and creative works. Readings of original poetry and fiction will also be considered (please email conference coordinators for details).  

Undergraduate and graduate students are also encouraged to submit proposals. Undergraduate students must submit their entire paper for consideration; eligible undergraduate papers will be entered into the national CCL Undergraduate Writing Contest for a cash prize and publication on the CCL website. Graduate students accepted to the conference are encouraged to apply for the CCL Travel Grant. For more details on these undergraduate and graduate opportunities, please visit the CCL website for full details:   https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Awards-and-Grants.  

Send abstracts (200-400 words) via email to ahimes@jbu.edu on or before July 1, 2022. Notifications will be sent to all submitters in early August 2022, with the final program being published by mid-September to allow ample time for presenters to make arrangements for their sessions. All presenters must be members of the Conference on Christianity and Literature prior to delivering their paper; membership includes a subscription to the conference’s journal and information can be found on the organization’s website: https://www.christianityandliterature.com/Membership.  

As you may have heard, the A-list celebrity trial of the divorced Jonny Depp and Amber Heard has entered the defense stage. For several weeks, the Depp attorneys have been making their $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife. Heard has counter-sued for $100 million. She took the stand today and told horror stories of the mental, emotional, and physical abuse she suffered from the supposedly drug and booze addled film star during their relationship.

And, of course, J. K. Rowling came up. It wasn’t, though, about what you might expect, namely, how Depp lost the role of Grindelwald after a London court threw out his case against Heard for libel and how Rowling had previously defended keeping him on as the Fantastic Beasts film franchise villain despite Heard’s claims against him. It was the Amphitrite yacht, originally the Vayoliroya, that she testified Depp had sold to Rowling and Heard’s experience with Depp and his two children on their farewell sailing to the Bahamas.

The Daily Mail, a venue perfectly fits for updates from this trial, reported her testimony about what she claims was a nightmare voyage that she and Depp’s daughter escaped by helicopter after they made port. For more about the yacht and how Heard almost certainly if unknowingly perjured herself when she said Rowling bought the yacht from Depp, join me after the jump. [Read more…]

I got an email last month from Leaky Con inviting me to buy tickets to their Orlando event this July. The pictures in this post are all taken from that marketing blast. You’ll note that no one in these fotos is wearing a mask; everyone is shown enjoying the company of others without social distancing or shielding their faces with a screen or face covering.

Which is understandable because the last two and a half years of Leaky Cons have been canceled because of Pandemania and the lock-step conformity of venue owners and event sponsors with risible CDC and WHO recommendations lest they be subject to liability litigation. They don’t have any pictures of Leaky Con attendees partying down with face masks because the events they scheduled in the periods when they were required never happened.

For those considering attendance at this year’s Orlando Leaky Con, please be aware that they are standing by their draconian Covid-hysteric ‘Health and Safety Policy,’ something hidden in the darker recesses of their website:

LEAKYCON ORLANDO 2022 HEALTH & SAFETY POLICY

All those in attendance at LeakyCon Orlando 2022 including, but not limited to, ticketed attendees, special guests, presenters, vendors, press, and staff, will be required to show either proof of full vaccination OR ​​a negative antigen COVID-19 test results from a testing done within 24 hours of entry to the event OR a negative PCR COVID-19 test result from a testing done within 72 hours of each day of entry to the event. Fully vaccinated is defined as at least 14 days after receiving the final vaccine in a one- or two-shot protocol with a vaccine approved by the FDA or WHO (including emergency use authorization).

Attendees will also be required to wear masks at all times during the event, except in designated areas for eating and drinking.

Any additional LeakyCon Orlando 2022 health and safety policies will be announced at a later date ahead of the event in line with the most up-to-date data and public health advice at that time.

This, though, may very well change before the July event. More on that after the jump! [Read more…]

You may have heard that, in the wake of Elon Musk buying Twitter, the Biden Administration announced that the Department of Homeland Security had opened a Disinformation Governance Board, quickly dubbed “The Ministry of Truth,” an Orwellian tagline from 1984. The head of this new government agency? Nina Jankowicz.

If you follow that link to Ms Jankowicz’s Wikipedia page, you will learn that she is a Bryn Mawr and Georgetown graduate who studied in Russia and was a Fulbright scholar in the Ukraine. The page also adds as an aside that she “has an interest in musical theater.”

Senator Ted Cruz tweeted out this catchy tune with clever lyrics by the Governance Board Chair appointee about disinformation.

This is Biden’s Minister of Truth…. https://t.co/jXdqRyA1vi

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 29, 2022

Tucker Carlson, in the piece below about the so-called Ministry of Truth as a shameless affront to the First Amendment’s prohibition of government abridgment of free speech, also played this clip (beginning at 4:55) along with statements from Ms Jankowicz saying that disinformation is a problem with the political right, not the left.

The funny thing? Neither of these spokesman of the conservative and Constitutional originalist faction in the United States chose to mention where Nina Jankowicz developed her “interest in musical theater.” She was one half of one of the most popular Wizard Rock bands at the height of that musical genre’s zenith in the late Aughts, The Moaning Myrtles. You can listen to their biggest hit, ‘Prefects Are Hot,’ in this YouTube clip.

As you might imagine, conservative news aggregation websites like Breitbart.com loved this connection, especially because of the anything but chaste lyrics of ‘Prefects Are Hot.’ ‘Biden Disinformation Chief Nina Jankowicz Sang About Sex Fantasy with Dead Harry Potter‘ is the Breitbart lede on their home page today. Forget the graduate degree from Georgetown, the Fulbright Scholarship, and the two published books; the Disinformation Governing Board Chair is to be judged by her late teen accomplishments as a Wizard Rock band member.

Just or unjust as this portrayal may be in the current climate of a cold Civil War between left and right in the United States today, my interest is in noting that the ‘Harry Potter Generation’ has now officially taken a position of power in Washington, as we all knew they someday must do. Breitbart concluded their cheery-picking of every Moaning Myrtle lyrics to find the most salacious with an observation reflecting the article writer’s familiarity with Potter canon: “It is an ironic discovery — Jankowicz’s apparent obsession with Harry Potter — as many have deemed her the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic’s overpowering Dolores Umbridge.”

The children that grew up reading the Hogwarts Saga are now both the actors on and scribes writing about the political center ring, positions they will probably hold until the Parousia or for up to three decades if the Lord tarries. “The Griffin has landed.”

Christos Anesti!

Some grand good news today, besides the victory over death that is! David Martin, long time friend of this weblog and senior member of the Hufflepuff squad that that won the premiere series of ‘Hogwarts Tournament of Champions,’ has written a book, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches and Other Thoughts about Harry Potter, which is now available on Amazon. You can follow David on Twitter @DavidTheHufflep and in Instagram at DavidTheHufflepuff. 

David spoke with Louise Freeman about his experiences at ‘Tournament of Champions’ in her “I could not have survived without my colleagues:” David Martin of Hufflepuff Gives the Inside Scoop on the Tournament of Houses. He doesn’t say much there about the book beyond that he is working on a sequel (‘How to Win Friends and Influence Wizards: Learning Social Skills from the Harry Potter Novels’) but here is what the book’s Amazon page says about Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches and Other Thoughts about Harry Potter:

The book blurb goes like this:

• What were the charms that Ron used to win Hermione’s heart?
• Why do wizards use old-fashioned things?
• What do Americans misunderstand about the Harry Potter books?
• Could there be a connection between the Harry Potter novels and Little Women?
• What is blood status really about?
• What is the connection between D-Day in World War II and the way Harry and Hermione use the time turner to save Sirius Black and Buckbeak?
• Why is it important that Voldemort’s wand is made of wood from a yew tree?
• What advice would Ginny Weasley give about how to handle boys?

These and many other topics are covered in this collection of essays (along with two chapters of comical fan fiction) mostly based on presentations made by David the Hufflepuff at Harry Potter conferences. Laugh some, learn, some, and deepen your appreciation of the Harry Potter books.

David Martin is a grandfather who has been reading, thinking about, and writing about Harry Potter for more than twenty years.

One thing David did mention in the interview was something he was working on, an essay “on the symbolism of trees, which was a pure wild guess. I said, I’ll bet there’s something there. Let’s take a look. And by golly, I found some rather surprising things.” I have his permission to share it today with HogwartsProfessor readers, an especially apt one for Pascha. Read that essay after the jump and be sure to chack out David’s new book, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches and Other Thoughts about Harry Potter. Congratulations, David, on the book and again for your team victory on Tournament of Champions! [Read more…]