On to Old Virginia! Hannah’s Graduation and HogPro Talks

I’m packing up and heading out to Lexington, Virginia, this weekend for my eldest daughter Hannah’s graduation from the Virginia Military Institute. Some of you have been around here long enough to remember her departure for ‘Rat Year’ back in the fall of 2007 and my request that you write her an encouraging note. She received more cards and letters that week than anyone else in her company and, she thought, perhaps more than everyone else in her company.

HogPro All-Pros have a special fondness for Hannah because she was the eleven year old girl who prompted me to read Harry Potter in the first place, albeit only so I could explain to her “why we don’t read trash like that.” She is a wonderful young woman, if I say so myself, and VMI has been very good to her. Read about her successes here and here so I don’t have to write it all out, shamelessly proud as I am. Lt. Granger is the centerpiece in the picture above.

And while I’m in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, I’ll be giving one formal talk, sitting in on one children’s literature class, and “leading a discussion” in a Rhetoric course on the state of Harry Potter criticism. For details about those events, at least one of which is open to the public, skip over the jump.

On Monday afternoon, I will sit in on at least part of Prof. Suzanne Keen’s Childrens Literature class at Washington & Lee. She and I are both Lev Grossman readers and fans as well as Potter-philes and I look forward to meeting her after several month’s correspondence.

Tuesday I head farther south for a talk sponsored by the Blue Ridge Library at the Greenfield Education and Training Center lecture hall. The talk is ‘Unlocking Harry Potter: Seven Keys for the Serious Reader’ and we’ll start at 7 pm. You’ll need a ticket if you want to come because seating is limited to 85. Call the library at 540 977 3433 to reserve a seat.

Wednesday we head home! I’m stopping at James Madison University on the way back, though, to lead a discussion in Prof. Elisabeth Gumnior’s ‘Investigating Harry Potter Scholarship’ course. Prof. Gumnior has opened the discussion for “all JMU faculty and summer students” who wish to attend and I am going to try to sneak Hogwarts Professor Louise Freeman past the Probity Probes, too.

If you’re in the area, I hope you can get to Daleville for my talk at the Greenfield Center! Responsibility for posting here about everything fascinating in our world today (well, a lot of it) is left in the capable hands of the other professors on duty. I’ll be back with a report next Thursday.