In The News
CNN Features Harry Potter in Academia
HP ReferencesWhile many readers and fans of the Harry Potter novels have long delved into the deeper meaning and context of the books in broader relation to other subjects, it would seem college universities here in the US are now following suit. CNN has a special feature article now online, highlighting the use of Harry Potter as curriculum at some of the universities in the States, including at Yale Divinity School, where graduate student Danielle Tumminio is teaching a course called “Christian Theology and Harry Potter.” CNN reports the “course uses all seven Potter books and the students examine Christian themes such as sin, evil and resurrection.
“It was a struggle for me as I put the class together, because I knew if I didn’t construct this really well … that a lot of what I was doing would be missed or misconstrued. I certainly didn’t want to come across as someone trying to indoctrinate my students,” Tumminio said. “I also wanted to make it clear that it was a critical endeavor, and that it wasn’t … that you’d sit around all day talking about how great Luna Lovegood was.”The class was an immediate draw for students. Seventy-nine people showed up at the first session for the 18 open seats.”
The article continues to note that others, such as authors John Granger, Philip Nel, and Ed Kerns have long seen the benefits to using Harry Potter in an academic situation. “Edmund Kern, author of “The Wisdom of Harry Potter” and professor at Lawrence University, was originally attracted to the books based on his training as a historian of early religion, magic and witchcraft. For him, the books’ historical impact, rather than their literary context, makes for a more intriguing analysis.
“As a kind of global cultural phenomenon, Harry Potter in a sense is unprecedented. I think movies have been extremely popular around the world, I think that certain music has been extremely popular around the world, but never before has a single literary endeavor caught the attention of so many people,” Kern said. Lisa Lowe, professor of American Studies at Yale, has read all seven books not as a scholar, but as a parent.
“What [Rowling’s] really done is come up with a mode of captivating a whole generation: it’s a form of captive concentration that took place over a course of nearly 10 years,” Lowe said.”As an adult, you’ll be thinking, ‘What would Harry have done?’ “
If you are interested in this type of deeper analytical and thoughtful examination of the Harry Potter books, be sure to check out our forum, where our Obscurus section focuses on these types of discussions, as well as Scribbulus, which contains many wonderful academic essays relating to the wonderful novels by J.K. Rowling.
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this is great! i hate it when super religious people say the books are evil and teach people how to be witches, now this will teach people how many religious themes they actually contain. my mom’s a pastor and she loves the HP books! she says they’re not so much as a book about magic, but a book about character and good vs. evil, which just happens to include magic. and that stupid lady who says “that to read a book she is protesting against is hypocritical”. I say that to NOT read a book you protest against is PREJUDICE. sorry, rambling…
Take that Harry Potter haters!!!!
Hate when people say to me that the harry potter books and movies are for children and that it would all pass soon enough. Now look at who’s reading them and further more studying them for “Christian themes such as sin, evil and resurrection.”(!!!!)
These are one of those moments that i think every potter fan can be proud of supporting the books and films.
That’s awesome! I’m starting a university in a few months and it would be so great to have HP books in class(but I doubt it). I’ve been thinking-wouldn’t be awesome to establish HP university? :D
To the best of my knowledge, the first HP course was offered by Richard Schumaker of the University of Maryland University College in 2000 or 2001….
Some weeks ago, I found a note at Vaxsjo’s University’s homepage about a course in Harry Potter, but I don’t think it was anything like this!
UUGGHH!! PEOPLE ARE MEDDLING IN HARRY POTTER’S AFFAIRS!
haha this is gas. Harry Potter is such a big thing can’t beleive it! Take that Laura Mallory!!!
As of 10 AM Eastern time there are four comments on the CNN site about the article. All on the negative side. I think we should all go comment on the merits.
there has also been a course on Harry Potter and ethics offered at UVa. I don’t know if it’s still offered, but the prof was interviewed on the local npr station about three or four years ago.
haha hilarious mollywobble! Woo perhaps once i graduate i could grab a temp job as the Harry Potter lecturer for the university
Nice! It sounds interesting! Oh, and take that Laura Mallory!! :-D
When I was getting my Masters in 2000 (Counseling Psych), we studied PS/SS for an abnormal psych course. The focus was on the psychological/personality differences between the houses. I work for the University of California as a counselor—and use HP books in my acculturation courses. I like to remind my new students that it is their choices now (not abilities! ;D) that will make a difference in their academic career’s. HP should have a place in academia and in our personal lives..good ethics and values and darn great reading!
I’m not taking an entire class on it, but I’m taking Ancient Mythology at Florida State and we will study Harry Potter at the end of the semester. I’m pretty excited.
I would have dearly loved to have taken a Harry Potter class (or several) while I was in college! It would have improved my GPA for sure and been great fun! :-) It sure would have enlivened my analytical literature classes! But alas! :-(
OH! MERLIN’S PANTS!!!!!! I could have gone on to get a PoD – Doctor of Potterosopy!
I read Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time in the fall of 2001 as a sophomore English major at Indiana State in my pop. lit. class. Professors have been doing this for a while, and I’m thankful because, without that class, I probably would have never read Potter and become the massive fan I am today! Now, as a seventh-grade language teacher, I wish I could read it with my students, but it’s too controversial (blah, blah, blah—I’m a strong Christian and have learned nothing about witchcraft after reading and rereading these novels). I have recommended them to many students, however, and have seen several new fans emerge. :)
Malinche,
I, too, tell my students that it is our choices (not our abilities) that show what we truly are. I even made a laminated poster with that quote on it and hung it on my classroom wall. :P
Not surprising at all. Most of the college English profs I know are total Potterheads.
The most recent one just read them all for the first time within a few days in January, immediately read them again, then told his class at the beginning of term: “The only reason I’m not reading them now, is because I want to grade you fairly.”
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I was wondering when there would be an academic course to take on this! I would be very interested to see what take the lecturer has on the books.