What was going to be a quick trip to the Midwest to give a Keynote Talk at Searching for Platform 9 ¾: An Academic Harry Potter Conference, in DeKalb, Illinois (Northern Illinois University) has turned into a five day, five lecture mini-tour with my daughter Sarah (who will be visiting two or three schools to which she is applying for admissions). Searching for Platform 9 ¾ remains the ‘big show’ — Travis Prinzi will be there and David Gras, not to mention the Ball (the complete schedule to the conference is below) and that the ‘early bird’ price is still ‘the price’ — but, if you really cannot get out to DeKalb on Saturday, there are now downstate Illinois, eastern Iowa, and south and north side of Chicago options for you to hear me talk at the end of the month.
I hope I can meet some Chicago area and Iowa/Illinois border HogPro All-Pro’s at these talks, as well as those who travel from farther away for the conference. Be sure to introduce yourself and show me your copy of The Deathly Hallows Lectures so I can put my ‘Gilderoy’ in it.
Here are the dates, times, and locations of each talk with the full Searching for Platform 9 ¾: An Academic Harry Potter Conference schedule. See you there!
October 29, 2008, Quincy, Illinois
Location: John Wood Community College, 1301 S. 48th St, 217-223-7353
Time: 6 – 9 pm
Lecture Topic: ‘The Eyes of Deathly Hallows: Harry Potter’s Corrected and Transforming Vision’
October 30, 2008, Mt. Vernon, Iowa
Location: Cole Library, Cornell College, 600 First Street SW, 52314
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Lecture Topic: ‘The Eyes of Deathly Hallows: Harry Potter’s Corrected and Transforming Vision’
October 31, 2008, Chicago, Illinois (Hyde Park)
Location: Charles Hitchcock Memorial Library (the Green Room; see picture below), Hitchcock Hall, University of Chicago, 1009 E . 57th St., 60637 (773) 702-5675
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Lecture Topic: ‘The Eyes of Harry Potter: Sight Through a Shared Text’
Someday I hope the University can host a Hogwarts party in Hutchinson Hall, if they haven’t already. Sarah is really looking forward to eating lunch here on Halloween (and so am I).
November 1, 2008, DeKalb, Illinois
Location: ‘Searching for Platform 9 3/4,’ Harry Potter Academic Conference, Northern Illinois University, Reavis Hall, (815) 753-1456, pietrowski@niu.edu
Time: Complete Conference Schedule below, Keynote Address 5 pm
Lecture Topic: ‘The Eyes of Deathly Hallows: Harry Potter’s Corrected and Transforming Vision’
Nota Bene: Travis Prinzi and David Gras will be speaking at this conference and the three of us will be on a panel led by David that will be podCast from TheHogsHead.org. It promises to be a relatively quiet (no WRock bands?!) and thoughtful conference as Harry Potter events go; please do come!
November 2, 2008, Chicago, Illinois (northside)
Location: All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church, 4129 W. Newport Ave., 60641, (773) 777-0749
Time: After Sunday morning Liturgy (Orthros begins at 8 am, Liturgy 9 am)
Lecture Topic: ‘Why Christians Read Fiction’
Schedule:
8:30 – 9 a.m. Registration (Reavis Hall)
9 – 9:15 a.m. Welcome (Reavis Hall)
Student sessions and Adult sessions separate
Student session schedule (grades 4 – 8 ) coming soon
Adult sessions and (grades 9 – 12)
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. –
“Creating a Mythology: Intersections between W.B. Yeats’ poetry and the Harry Potter Novels.” Anne Canavan, Ph.D. candidate, Department of English, Northern Illinois University (DuSable 206)
“What Harry Learned about the Power of Love and the Significance of Seven-The Journey of a Teenage Seeker” Gina Burkart, Ph.D. candidate, Department of English, University of Northern Iowa (DuSable 212)
10:40 – 11:40 a.m.
“When Should Someone read Harry Potter? The Progression of Readability and the Maturing of Content through the Series” – Vicky McKinley, Ph.D., professor, Department of Biology, Roosevelt University (DuSable 206)
“The Reel Female Super Teacher in Harry Potter Films” Kathleen Turner, Ph.D. candidate, Department of English, Northern Illinois
University (DuSable 212)
11:50 – 12: 50 a.m.
Lunch and Keynote Address – “The Influence of Gender and Harry Potter’s Heroic (Trans)Formation” – Karley Adney, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Marathon County (Reavis, conference room)
1 – 1:50 p.m.
“Quills, Queries, and Quests: Literacy and Learning in the Wizarding World” – Travis Prinzi, M.A., founder of the blog “The Hog’s Head” and the podcast “The Hog’s Head Pubcast” (DuSable 206)
“Writers workshop” Gina Burkart, Ph.D. candidate, Department of English, University of Northern Iowa (DuSable 212)
2 – 2:50 p.m.
“Harry Potter and the Bridge Between Two Worldviews” – David Gras, John Granger, Travis Prinzi panel discussion (podcast) Panel lead, David Gras, is an Ohio area presenter and teacher to various youth/parent groups in regard to Fantasy Literature and the Christian church (DuSable 206)
3 – 3:50 p.m.
“All the Minister’s Men: Analyzing Press and Power in Harry Potter” – Tracy Douglas, Law student at Southern Illinois
University (DuSable 206)
“Question Authority: Heroism and Leadership in the Harry Potter Series” – Cathy Colton, Ph.D. Co-Chair Department of English, College of Lake County (DuSable 212)
4 – 4:50 p.m.
“Families and Fandom: How to Start a Book Club and Get Others Involved in Reading Harry Potter” – Linda and Amber Lowery, Both mother and daughter work at libraries and have run successful Harry Potter book clubs. (DuSable 206)
Craft Session/discussion will also be in DuSable 206.
5 – 6 p.m. Closing Keynote Address – John Granger, founder of the popular website hogwartsprofessor.com is the author of several books analyzing the Harry Potter book series. (Reavis, conference room)
Quincy, Illinios is close enough for me to get there and it has the longest lecture time! Would it be possible for HogPro mates to meet and greet or even meet and eat? I am really looking forward to this and would love to fellowship with any others who could be there.
Ahhhh Professor, my heart doth skip a beat at the mention of “downstate Illinois!” I was hoping for Champaign and the University of Illinois or Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
One day, perhaps. Happy Speaking and Blessings on Sarah’s search.
pj
This looks like a great tour for me. God allowing, it seems now that I’ll be meeting “inked” in Quincy for a pint or breakfast, married friends from the UC I haven’t seen in more than two decades while I am in Hyde Park, at NIU I will break bread with a professor who teaches a class at Augustana College on Harry as Postmodern hero, and my speaking agent and several heroes who work at Touchstone magazine worship at All Saints.
Not to mention catching up with Travis and David Gras at ‘Searching for Platform 9 3/4’… I hope to see other All Pro’s, too, if you can make it! Be sure to introduce yourself (I’m miserable at remembering faces I’ve never seen before) and that I am excited about meeting you; talking with serious readers in person is the very best part of my Walter Mitty existence as a Potter Pundit.