Wonderful opportunity for Hunger Games fans who are students — Dr Amy H. Sturgis, Potter Pundit and All-Around Literary Lioness, is offering a free lecture series this Spring! Read what she sent me about it:

On the weekends of March 28/29 and April 11/12, I’ll be offering a free interactive, multimedia lecture series – hotel accommodations and catering is included – for interested undergraduate and graduate students. It’s in Asheville, NC, a stone’s throw from where the Hunger Games film was shot. Students are responsible for travel there and back, but everything else is paid for.

The subject is “The Dystopian Tradition: What Worlds Gone Wrong Can Teach Us.”

Here’s the description:

Why did nearly 370 international organizations in the spring of 2014 use the term “Big Brother” from Nineteen Eighty-Four in their united call for global surveillance reform? Why did citizens in Thailand in the summer of 2014 adopt the three-finger salute from The Hunger Games to protest the repressive military coup in their country? Dystopian fiction and film pervades popular culture and conveys big ideas about issues of immediate political, economic, and social importance. This series will explore the warnings embedded in a century of great dystopian works with a focus on the lessons about human nature, free societies, and individual and community well-being that remain most relevant–and challenging–today.

For free registration, go to http://bit.ly/1t2Un5l

Do you love Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy? Well, you’ve come to the right place for serious readers’ discussion of the artistry and meaning of these best-selling books and the blockbuster movies!

For the round-up of 30 posts about Mockingjay, the book, head here. The ‘Greatest Hits’ from that set include:

• The Hanging Tree, especially important for understanding the first film of the last book;
• ‘Unlocking Mockingjay: The Spiritual Allegory’ On Katniss as a Soul Seeking Perfection and Iconological Reading
• ‘Unlocking Mockingjay: ‘The Literary Alchemy’ On Literary Alchemy and Peeta as Postmodern Christ
• ‘Unlocking Mockingjay: Katniss’ Apotheosis’ On the Alchemical Arena and Katniss’ Perfection in the Inner Sanctuary
• Katniss’ Meadow Song the probable hit of Mockingjay, Part 2
• The Hunger Games Formula, Collins’ literary scaffolding
• Real or Not Real, the last-word-decisive theme of Mockingjay

For the round-up of 35 posts about the first films, check this out. The best from that lot, I think, are:

• Gamesmakers Hijack Story: Capitol Wins Hunger Games Again
• LA Times: Is Jennifer Lawrence A Real Life Katniss Everdeen?
• Literary Alchemy and The Hunger Games: Three Podcasts
• What You Missed Last Night at the Capitol’s Movie Premiere
• Psychological Types in Harry Potter, Hunger Games
• The 2010 Lev Grossman ‘Mockingjay’ Interview that Wasn’t
• Ladies and Gentlemen, Let the Countdown of Blogs begin! (EB-H)
• The Larger Ring of The Hunger Games Trilogy: The Meadow

There are a lot more that are just as good or better — dig in! Scroll down, too, for Elizabeth Baird-Hardy’s review of the latest film.

Welcome to Hogwarts Professor, your best online resource for in-depth discussion of The Hunger Games!