Culture & Movement
Move and Be Moved.
  • Culture & Movement
  • The Blog
  • The Cultural Critic
  • The Fitness Instructor
    • Events Fall 2019
    • Yoga for Every Mind/Body
    • Feminist Fitness
    • Fitness Workshops
  • The Professor
    • C.V. (resume)
    • Fulbright in Denmark
    • YA Dystopia
    • Teaching Girls on Fire

(Part Two) The Real and Fictional Girls on Fire in Potterverse

10/25/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
In addition to the reading and research I did to prepare for my plenary talk at the Harry Potter Academic conference, when one of my students (in my intro to interdisciplinary studies class and my Girls on Fire class) offered up her expertise, I asked her what it was about the books that spoke to her.

Her response was not only heartfelt and illuminating, it also helped me to understand several of the presentations I attended. The role of trauma, violence, and grief were the focus of several presentations and it was clear that Harry Potter has helped countless people survive, process, and heal trauma of all kinds. My student’s response was the kernel of a paper that I will encourage her to write and submit to neat year’s call for papers.

As I noted in part one of this two-part blog, the papers accepted and presented at the Harry Potter Academic Conference are selected not based upon academic credentials, but on the merit of the ideas presented in the abstract. There is also a clear effort to include undergraduates, independent scholars, and even high school students. This approach helped to create a diverse multi-generational, interdisciplinary, group of presenters and attendees and an environment for a free exchange of ideas.
My plenary was an overview of my work about the Girl on Fire—the power of the symbol and the potential of imagining the future through the lens of girls and women. And while I was there to give participants a new lens on Harry Potter, I also gained a new lens for my Girls on Fire work. While the presenters were not explicitly using a “Girls on Fire” lens, their work spoke to the spirit of the Girl on Fire—as symbol, as role model, as activist, as mentor.

There were a wide variety of interdisciplinary presentations that applied lenses of psychology, sociology, science, critical theory, religious studies, queer theory, feminism, history, Shakespeare, and pedagogy, as well as character studies including an insightful and entertaining powerhouse of a presentation by Kate Glassman, an MFA, poet, and middle school teacher from Minnesota: “Irascible and inflexible, perhaps, but always dependably, solidly present: The Preeminence of Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter.” She was on fire: sassy, witty, and unapologetic.

Two Girls on Fire gave inspiring talks in the last session. The first, Madison Stump from Bowling Green State University, presented “Harry Potter as a Discussion of Environmental Harm and Impact.” She was on fire, imagining an environmental movement made up of visionary Potter fans. The second, Wellesley student, Anto Chavez Alfonzo, presented with her mentor, the advisor of the Miami Dade College chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance, Emily Sendin. She was on fire describing the social justice events that Hermione’s Army organized and the “transformative effects on a community of student readers and leaders.”

While there were plenty of men at the conference, the majority of presenters and attendees were women. This may be due to any number of factors including women’s majority in education generally, and their over-representation in the humanities and soft sciences. It might also be due to the ways in which the Harry Potter books speak to female readers through the “Girl on Fire” character of Hermione Granger—and a number of other female characters like Luna and Ginny.

Further, the men who presented illustrated the best characteristics of allies to Girls on Fire. For instance, Brett Slattery presented “You Won’t Need Any Ink: Dolores Umbridge and Pathological Tribalism” while dressed in the most fabulous drag ever—a skillfully crafted ensemble of pink and camp. And, co-organizer, Patrick McCauley, presented “The Appeal of the Universal Under the Shadow of the Postmodern”—a brilliant call for an intervention in postmodern theory and practice. He framed his talk with a story about the silencing of his female students—a call for approaches that empower young women who choose not to speak up because of the costs of being a know-it-all.

While I had no doubt about the richness of the Potterverse—I see it reflected in my students and colleagues all the time—I was not fully prepared for the magic (ah, there’s the obvious reference again!) that came from witnessing the best qualities of academic conferences. Enthusiasm, critical inquiry, celebration, connection, imagination, collaboration, vision, and inclusion. As I learned to say, we all solemnly swear that we are up to no good!
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Sarah Hentges

    I am a professor and a fitness instructor. I work too much, eat too much, and love too much. To borrow from Octavia Butler, I am "an oil and water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive." Because my work is eclectic, so are the topics I write about.

    During 2018-19, I will be focusing on blogging about my adventures as a Fulbright in Denmark, teaching American Studies courses and doing research about Danish culture and fitness and yoga.

    Archives

    September 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Academia
    American
    Comedy
    Denmark
    Dystopia
    Epic Road Trip
    Exercise
    Feminism
    Feminist Fitness
    Food
    Fulbright
    Girls
    Girls On Fire
    Hip Hop
    Interdisciplinarity
    Intersectionality
    Love
    Mind/body Fitness
    PCT
    Pictures Of Girlhood
    Race
    Sabbatical
    Self Care
    Self-care
    Sexuality
    Speculative Fiction
    Teaching
    Teen Films
    Transformation
    Women & Fitness
    Women & Fitness
    Women Of Color Feminisms
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.