Potterversity released the second half of the Chestnut Hill Academic Conference recap today. It was definitely a Gilderoy moment for me, as my Strike talk on xenomelia got a lot of great feedback. There was also some interesting discussion on the lack of scholarly interest in Rowlings other works.
Interestingly, the xenomelia talk would never have happened if my now-retired colleague in philosophy had not invited me to give a guest talk in his Mary Baldwin honors colloquium on the self. The richness and expansiveness of the liberal arts and sciences should never bee underestimated.
Check it out here.
Louise, I started to listen to this podcast all eager, especially since your talk on xenomelia was so well received. But about a third of the way into it when another JKR hater was going on about how little her non wizarding works are worth, I just got annoyed and tuned out. Pass. Is there any chance we’ll see your article here or is it already here and I need help finding it?
Sandy,
I am not certain whether I will write up the talk for here— it was a long and complicated talk and I fear it would be an even longer and more complicated blog post!
For what it’s worth, I would not characterize any of the podcast panel as “haters”— only people who have both strong disagreements with Rowling’s “gender critical” position (an opinion I share) and tremendous admiration for her writing (ditto).
The bulk of the xenomelia discussion is around the 30 minute mark, if you want to jump ahead.
Louise, thank you for correcting me. I was so intrigued by the way you talked about a scientific understanding of something I found shocking and beyond weird. But also incredibly insensitive to expect someone like Strike, a military man who lost his leg to be secretly happy about it, as if he planned it. Again thanks for setting me straight.