Potterversity: A Potter Studies Podcast

Eavesdrop on the Potterversity faculty in the staff lounge as we dish about Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ! NOTE: This episode contains spoilers! On this special episode, hear uncensored opinions and on-the-spot analysis about The Secrets of Dumbledore from some of our Potterversity regulars, Beatrice Groves, Emma Nicholson, Louise Freeman, and Lana Whited. We’ve pulled together outt...

Join us for our deep dive into Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and its literary allusions, beastly lore, and continuation of the plot points in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . NOTE: This episode contains spoilers! Dr. Beatrice Groves (Trinity College, Oxford) joins Katy and Emily to decode the symbolic elements of this story and help us understand where it fits within the Harry...

David Martin, one of the winners of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses , talks about his amazing experience on the show. On this episode, Katy and Emily talk with our friend David Martin about being on the victorious Hufflepuff team on the Tournament of Houses quiz show, which aired on TBS November to December 2021. He tells us how the auditions went, what it was like to be on the show, w...

Understand the ties that bind – blood and otherwise – in Arthurian legend and the wizarding world in this episode. Emily and Katy discuss with Dr. Carol Jamison (Georgia Southern University) the links between Arthurian literature and Harry Potter through the concepts of blood lines, noble (or “pure”) blood, and blood feud. Author of Chivalry in Westeros (McFarland, 2018), Carol examines medievalis...

Take a closer look at the Harry Potter fandom in this month's episode! What aspects of the fandom are your favorites: festivals, online communities, cosplay, fan fiction, or something else? On this episode, Emily and Katy talk with Dr. Marianne Martens (Kent State University), author of The Forever Fandom of Harry Potter (Cambridge University Press), about what makes Harry Potter fan communities u...

We at Potterversity love house-elves ! Join us for our valentine to Dobby, Winky, Kreacher, and Hokey and their persistent relevance for understanding injustice. House-elf fans Emily and Katy talk with Dr. Christine Schott (Erskine College) about how the house-elves keep Harry Potter relevant to social issues today. Given the upheaval this new generation of readers sees in our world, Christine tel...

Looking to recover lost love? Discover the connections between the Harry Potter stories and The Christmas Pig .  Designed for younger readers, The Christmas Pig features a young boy going on a perilous quest to thwart a materialist villain, The Loser, and reclaim his lost, beloved best friend, Dur Pig (DP). In this first episode of the new year, Emily and Katy explore the similarities between The...

Tune in for the latest Potter Studies insights from the tenth annual Harry Potter Academic Conference! In this special episode, Emily and Katy have an in-person roundtable with Laurie Beckoff, Kat Miller ( Alohomora! ), and Kat Sas about some of the exciting ideas and controversial issues raised over the course of October's Harry Potter Academic Conference (HPAC) at Chestnut Hill College. Fresh fr...

Get a little "meta" in this episode about Harry Potter fandom and pop culture podcasting!  Emily and Katy talk with film and fandom scholar - and fellow podcaster - Michael Boyce, Professor of English Literature and Film Studies at Booth University College and host of the Geek 4 podcast. We investigate how the Harry Potter films have affected our fandom and explore podcasting about popular culture...

Investigate bullying at Hogwarts on this month’s episode. In this episode, Emily and Katy talk with Ithaca College’s Katharine Kittredge and Carolyn Rennie about the history of bullying and how it relates to the social and educational environment at Hogwarts. We talk about what makes a bully and how that conception has perhaps changed over time in the western world. Katharine explains how eighteen...

Decode magical numbers on this month's episode! Katy and Emily talk with Dr. Lana Whited (Ferrum College) about one of the more mysterious of the magical subjects at Hogwarts: Arithmancy. We discuss where this subject fits in the Hogwarts core curriculum, its historical and etymological roots, and its meaning within the Harry Potter series. And, for that matter, how do you even pronounce it? Arith...

Harry’s explorations of loss, grief, and the nature of death borrow heavily from classical visions of the underworld, especially Virgil's Aeneid . In this episode, Katy and Emily talk to Dr. Vassiliki (Lily) Panoussi, Chancellor Professor of Classical Studies at William and Mary, about references in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to Virgil's Aeneid . Lily tells us about this ancient Roman or...

On this episode, we're reading Harry Potter through trauma theory, Fat Studies, and semiotics - and from the perspective of a nonbinary trans scholar of young adult literature. What does it meant to be a Potter scholar? Get a glimpse of one academic's research into a variety of topics in the Harry Potter books. In this episode, Emily and Katy talk with Tolonda Henderson, former librarian and curre...

Universes collide as we imagine the story of the founding of Hogwarts in the form of a Shakespeare play. In this episode, we're joined by Ian Doescher, author of William Shakespeare's Star Wars as well as Shakespearean retellings other of modern tales. He tells us about how he first embarked on this project and what made Star Wars a natural fit for Shakespeare. Ian is particularly struck by how Sh...

Explore the many dark connections between Harry Potter and Dracula , two stories of love, death, and the conquest of evil. In this episode, Katy and Emily talk with Dr. Beatrice Groves ( Literary Allusions in Harry Potter , Bathilda’s Notebook) about the many parallels between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Harry Potter series.  Hogwarts evokes Count Dracula’s castle, and J.K. Rowling and Stoker ev...

'Our Puffs -palooza continues as we talk with some of the talented people behind the play Puffs .  We continue our conversation about the wonderful fan re-vision of the Harry Potter series, the off-Broadway play Puffs . Emily and Katy discuss with Matt Cox ( Puffs creator) and Stephen Stout ( Puffs actor and producer) the creative process behind the making of the play. Note: This episode contains...

Join us for the beginning of our Puffs -palooza!  In this episode, we talk with Dr. Melissa Aaron and Dr. Lauren Camacci about the off-Broadway play Puffs - how you can see it at home, why should see it (if you haven’t already), and why we love it so much. Warning: Spoilers abound in this episode!   Puffs imagines the seven-book Harry Potter series in a compressed timeline and from the perspective...

Are the Harry Potter novels fantasy, mystery, school story, bildungsroman , allegory, or something else? Harry Potter ’s blend of genres shapes reader expectations and creates fascinating intersections. In this episode, Dr. Tison Pugh (Pegasus Professor of English at the University of Central Florida) joins Katy and Emily to discuss the wide variety of genre conventions, patterns, and themes emplo...

A Valentine for...Uncle Vernon?  In this episode of Potterversity , Katy and Emily talk with scholar Tim Jennings about Vernon Dursley in a way that, if it doesn’t redeem Harry’s uncle, does seek to humanize him. Why is Uncle Vernon the way that he is? What motivates him? Why is he so awful to Harry? We explore Vernon’s relationships with his wife Petunia and his sister Marge to determine what we...

What does the prevalence of violence in the Harry Potter series tell us about magical civilization - and our own?  Despite its theme of nonviolence, there’s a fair amount of violence in the Harry Potter series. On this episode, Katy and Emily talk with Dr. Aurélie Lacassagne, Associate Professor of Political Science at Laurentian University - Sudbury, in Ontario, Canada. Aurélie explains how the H...

Uncover the meaning of Christmas in the Harry Potter novels.  On this episode, Katy and Emily talk with Dr. Beatrice Groves (author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter and blogger at Bathilda’s Notebook) about the Christmases at Hogwarts and how they culminate in the final book’s graveyard scene at Godric’s Hollow. Emily points out that J.K. Rowling uses Christmas as a way to highlight the magic...

Rule-breaking for the right reasons on this episode of Potterversity. Katy and Emily talk with Dr. Beth Sutton-Ramspeck about her analysis of rule-breaking and creativity in the Harry Potter series. In the early 2000s, some parents wanted the Harry Potter books banned because the students at Hogwarts often broke the rules without consequences. We talk about why this misbehavior may actually point...

Catch a glimpse of the latest in Harry Potter scholarship and get oriented to our new podcast!  In our first episode, Emily and Katy introduce the virtual Potter Studies education you can expect from Potterversity. We discuss the Harry Potter Academic Conference (HPAC) at Chestnut Hill College, which this year was held virtually. Kudos to Karen Wendling and Patrick McCauley for pulling off this ga...

In imaginative fiction, bridges provide access to magical and dangerous worlds.  During this month’s episode, Katy and Emily talk about bridges in the Harry Potter books and movies. We’ve scoured the books and films for bridge images and references to see where they’re used and how. There are not many bridges in the books - though the Brockdale Bridge’s destruction at the beginning of Book 6 and t...

Literary alchemy provides clues to the romantic pairings in Harry Potter .  Why did Ron and Hermione, Remus and Tonks, and Bill and Fleur end up paired together? Literary alchemy holds the symbolic answers. Katy and John talk this month with Elizabeth Baird Hardy (Mayland Community College) and Beatrice Groves (Oxford University) about the alchemical pairings of elements that reveal themselves in...