MuggleNet Academia

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Harry Potter and Fantastics Beasts sagas.

In this lesson, we are joined by returning Potter Pundit, Chris Gavaler from Washington & Lee University, as we tackle a very difficult subject to discuss in American History - Eugenics

Eugenics is difficult to wrap your head around when you consider that it actually began in America and culminated in Nazi Germany with the killing of 20 million Jews, gypsies, and undesirables. We give the listener a strong understanding of its history and lead into how the setting of 1926 America in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts is centered around this subject. Even actor, Ezra Miller (Credence Barebones) and Director David Yates stated during interviews how Eugenics is a crucial subject in this setting of Fantastic Beasts.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Hogwarts saga.

In this lesson, we are joined by the trio of Hogwarts Professors Team members with returning Potter pundits, Professor Louise Freeman from Mary Baldwin University, Professor Elizabeth Baird-Hardy from Maryland Community College, and Professor Emily Strand from Mount Carmel College of Nursing.

It's a BIG ONE listeners and fans as we are tackling the first of five films and screenplays in the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them saga. We examine everything on this film from the composition of the story structure, the creatures, scenes, North American Indian folklore missteps, and so much more. This is a "Fantastic" discussion that you will not want to miss.

WARNING: Spoilers are contained throughout the lesson, so be sure you have watched the Fantastic Beasts film before listening to this show.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Hogwarts saga.

In this lesson, we are joined by author of Snape: A Definitive Reading, Lorrie Kim to discuss the live and times of our favorite Hogwarts Professor to love and hate, Professor Severus Snape. We examine his upbringing, school years, and a variety of takeaways from the readings in all seven books. Certainly a lively conversation at Chestnut Hill College during the Harry Potter Weekend in Philadelphia, PA.

Joining us on our panel today is returning Potter pundits, Professor Louise Freeman from Mary Baldwin University, and Professor Emily Strand from Mount Carmel College of Nursing.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Hogwarts saga.

In response to objections of Native American critics to Rowling’s failings there have been dismissals from some parts of Harry Potter fandom of these criticisms as “politically correct” and that “it’s just a story.” But Rowling has set herself up to being held to a higher standard, hasn’t she? Both in the research she did for the Hogwarts Saga and the tone and themes of those books?

• Rowling said in trailer to Fantastic Beasts that her stories are about those “set apart, stigmatized, or othered,”
• In a July 7, 2000 Entertainment Weekly interview, J.K. Rowling admits, “bigotry is probably the thing I detest most. All forms of intolerance, the whole idea of ‘that which is different from me is necessarily evil.’

Besides the size of her following, are these the kinds of comments and the hypocrisy of the Pottermore back stories the reasons fans are so surprised and disappointed? John Greene has said “Reading is always an act of empathy. It’s always an imagining of what it’s like to be someone else.” I suppose writing is, too. Has Rowling failed here in empathy, as well as research and understanding?

We’ve invited two authorities on literature and First Nations traditions to talk with us and share their reading of these chapters: Dr. Amy H. Sturgis and Allison Mills.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Hogwarts saga.

Science in Harry Potter? You’re kidding, right? Harry’s adventures are set in a magical world that is the antithesis of the Muggle realm’s dependence on science and engineering; magic by definition is the suspension of the laws of nature, and, as science is the exploration of those laws, the worlds should not meet, even in the potions laboratory of Professor Snape. Except in one field, namely, genetics. Witches and wizards, pure-blood, half-bloods, mudbloods, and even squibs are all subject to and products of the vagaries of chromosomes and genetic coding like all the rest of us and as this is no small part of the larger meaning of the Hogwarts Saga – the prejudice of purebloods to muggleborns – getting the genetics right is an important thing.

Joining us today to talk about this is Dr. Eric Spana, an Assistant Professor in the Practice of Biology at Duke, who is an expert on the subject and Priyanka Nadar, founder of the Harry Potter Alliance chapter at Mary Baldwin University who has her Masters in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Hogwarts saga.

In this lesson we discuss the relationships between J.K. Rowling and her literary agents and Warner Bros. to discuss Rowling's copyrights, trademarks, merchandising, and extended content such as "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and "Cursed Child" productions and subsequent book productions. What are some of the legal ins and outs associated with all of these projects and who leads it all? Is it Rowling herself, Blair Partnerships, or is it the Harry Potter Global Franchise Division? We discuss all of this and more with our returning guest, Heidi Tandy, lawyer extraordinaire and co-founder of HPEF and Fiction Alley. Also joining us today are student guest, Mary Wojcicki, and Haley Lewis.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

Once again, the MuggleNet Academia team of host Keith Hawk, managing editor for MuggleNet, and co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, brings our fans the latest in academic discussions within the Hogwarts saga. In this lesson, we discuss Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in depth.

SPOILER WARNING: During this academic lesson, we will be discussing many plot points and offering literary analysis from the 'draft rehearsal script' including many spoilers. DO NOT Listen to this lesson if you have not read the script.

Not since the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has the Harry Potter fandom gathered at midnight in bookstores and libraries around the world for a new story from Rowling’s beloved Wizarding World. The ‘draft rehearsal script’ of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was published at the witching hour on Harry and Jo’s birthday, 31 July, and Potter Pundits around the world have been reading and re-reading in a hurry to let us know what they think of it. MuggleNet Academia has invited the faculty of HogwartsProfessor.com, our friends Professors Elizabeth Baird-Hardy, Louise Freeman, and Emily Strand with my co-host John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor himself, to join us and get the conversation going.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

In this lesson, we have asked C. S. Plocher, professional editor who blogs at WriteLikeRowling.com, and Christine Frazier of the BetterNovelProject.com webBlog to join us in opening a new subject, namely, knowing what we do about Harry Potter as a literary artifact. Can we reproduce its success at least in part by imitating how J.K. Rowling tells her seven part epic? Have other authors already done this? Where did Rowling find her tools or are they unique to her?

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

In this lesson, we take a strong look at the upcoming releases within the Wizarding World itself: The Cursed Child play and its associated script in book form; Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them film and its associated screenplay in book form; the theme park openings; along with the constant backstory from JKR's Pottermore website. Is this all for the betterment of the fans? Or is there a hidden shadow in the form of fan exploitation in the works? Returning to the show to talk with us about the new movies and related controversies are screenplay writer extraordinaire and first tier Potter Pundit, Janet Batchler, and MuggleNet staffer and recent graduate of Broadcasting, Amy Hogan.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.

MuggleNet Academia is a comprehensive insight into the literary thematic elements and scholastic endeavors that author J.K. Rowling has provided in her writings of the Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike series.

We look through the entire Harry Potter series for various elements in alchemy, literary components, composition attributes, as well as available classes at Universities and Colleges around the world, and various unique studies that are being implemented today. We also dissect the Cormoran Strike mystery detective series as the books are being released, helping readers understand and appreciate the writings of the modern-day Dickens, J.K. Rowling.

In this lesson, a critical insight to the widely popular Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. On the surface the stories could not be more different: one is contemporary School Boy Gothic with a rich undercurrent of humor and satire, the other is dystopian fiction and almost unfailingly grim. But they deliver an experience that made Katniss’ trials in her Games arenas seem like a continuation or an expansion of Harry’s battles with the Dark Lord. Tonight, we have invited three noted Potter Pundits -- the editor of the just published Critical Insights volume on The Hunger Games, Lana Whited, and two contributors to this volume, Dr Amy H Sturgis and Elizabeth Baird-Hardy -- to talk about Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, and what we learn about each series in appreciating the other.

We hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening.