Text of a talk delivered at the Chestnut Hill College Harry Potter Academic Conference on October 17, 2025. For today, I wasn’t sure if it was the right move to do a basic-level textual read. In the current political climate, especially in U.S. fandom circles, some argue that it’s not the time to delve back
This talk was delivered at the Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College, October 20, 2023. “The Wandmaker,” Chapter 24 of Deathly Hallows, is a chapter of extraordinary range and eloquence. The writing is unapologetically mysterious, almost inscrutable but worth re-reading together. It starts with Dobby’s death. Harry pulls an all-nighter to dig Dobby
In October 2020, Dr. Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, gave the plenary address at the Harry Potter Conference held at Chestnut Hill College. The following is a transcript of the video from that address. The Deathly Hallows: How Literature Helps Us To See the Evil in Politics *BEGINS AT 00:03:13* Timothy Snyder: Thank you very
Summary: Through plot and literary strategies, the Harry Potter series pays tribute to several themes from To Kill a Mockingbird, which J.K. Rowling recommended as one of her top 10 books for young readers. Marvolo Gaunt and Bob Ewell impose their racism and abuse on their daughters, with catastrophic consequences. The scapegoating of Tom Robinson has echoes in
Delivered on October 16, 2020 at the Harry Potter Conference of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA. On September 25, 2018, Korean actress Claudia Kim was announced in the role of Nagini for Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald. Here is my five-item tweet from the moment I found out: That was a fun morning. I
Delivered October 16, 2020 at the Harry Potter Conference of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA. The way we read Harry Potter in the U.S. changed with the 2016 election. For almost 20 years, many of us were able to fall in love with this series as comfort reading. Monstrous tyrants who rounded up ethnic
Notes from a talk delivered at LeakyCon in Boston, MA, USA, on Saturday, October 12, 2019. A shorter version of this talk was delivered at the Harry Potter Conference of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA, on Friday, October 18, 2019. Posted by request. Good morning. I’m going to be talking about a few aspects
Notes from a talk delivered at LeakyCon in Boston, MA, USA, on Sunday, October 13, 2019. Posted by request. Thank you for coming to think about what is, to me, the most difficult relationship to understand in Harry Potter. There are things about Snape and Dumbledore that I’ve been trying to figure out since July 2007
At MISTI-Con 2019, Irvin Khaytman (author of The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore) and I conducted a conversation on “Discussing HP in 2019,” during a time when fandom is grappling with a number of contentious issues. Our actual discussion went differently, and I don’t have notes for Irvin’s half of it, but
I was honored to be part of the keynote panel at MISTI-Con 2019 alongside Bayana Davis, Constance Gibbs, and Lawrence Neals, “Evanesco Representation, Accio Inclusion: Diversity in Harry Potter.” Moderator Robyn Jordan of Black Girls Create sent out questions in advance. Here are the answers I prepared to a couple of those questions. I’m going
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