Potterversity: A Potter Studies Podcast

Potterversity with MuggleNet.com

In the hallowed halls of Potterversity, hosts Katy McDaniel (Marietta College) and Emily Strand (Mt. Carmel College and Signum University) explore the Harry Potter series and wider Wizarding World from a critical academic perspective with scholars from a variety of fields, finding new ways to read and opening new doors. Made in association with MuggleNet.com. 

  1. Potterversity Episode 66: Back to Wizarding Business

    JUL 14

    Potterversity Episode 66: Back to Wizarding Business

    Why is there a lack of service businesses in the wizarding world? Following up on our earlier episode about magical businesses, our technical director, Emma Nicholson, joins us to continue the conversation. Perhaps there aren't many businesses that provide services, as opposed to goods, to wizards because people with magical skills should be able to easily do household tasks for themselves. Not being able to do so is seen as shameful. Consider the characters who perform manual labor or do maintenance work - house-elves, Squibs like Filch, low-level Ministry employee Reg Cattermole. What about entertainers, such as magical athletes and musicians? Is that kind of physical work different? Previous guest David Martin also wrote in wondering about what is considered a service business. Gringotts? The Knight Bus? St. Mungo's Hospital? Niche specialized skills or blended businesses that provide a product as well as a service, like newspapers or wedding marquee rentals, seem to be different than straightforward services. What does this say about the significance of tangible objects wizards can own? Why don't wizards open businesses to provide services to Muggles, secretly using magic to easily make or fix things? Why is any wizard poor when there's a whole untapped market of Muggles who would have more need of their skills? The International Statute of Secrecy and resulting segregation between wizards and Muggles may stop anyone from crossing that line. Magic leaves a trace, and magical repairs may not always work exactly as intended or may be suspiciously effective. The risks may just not be worth it to most people.

    42 min
  2. Potterversity Episode 65: Potter & Trek Part 2 - The Reality Inside Your Head

    JUN 9

    Potterversity Episode 65: Potter & Trek Part 2 - The Reality Inside Your Head

    We're voyaging out to the farthest reaches of space and into the deepest recesses of the mind for another look at Harry Potter and Star Trek. Potterversity regular Louise Freeman, a retired psychology professor and licensed behavioral analyst who previously joined us for two episodes on memory in Harry Potter, contacted us after our Star Trek episode to share another connection that occurred to her. She asks us to consider the famous Dumbledore quotation "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (DH 723) in the context of implanted memories in Star Trek. We focus on Captain Picard's life in an extinct civilization on the Next Generation episode "The Inner Light" and Chief O'Brien's prison sentence on Deep Space Nine's "Hard Time." Both experiences take place only in the characters' minds within a few minutes yet feel like years to Picard and O'Brien. Technically, Picard never left the bridge of the Enterprise and O'Brien never served time in jail - it happened inside their heads but felt real to them and had lasting effects. We also discuss Captain Pike's time on Talos IV on The Original Series, where aliens can create convincing illusions either to trap people or to give them a better quality of life, which is particularly appealing for Pike after he becomes severely disabled. Nog's time in a Las Vegas nightclub in a holosuite following a traumatic injury on Deep Space Nine's "It's Only a Paper Moon" leads us to consider Potter's ghosts and another Dumbledore quote: "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live" (SS 214). These "unreal" experiences can have positive or negative consequences and demonstrate the power of escapism not only within these series but for audiences who feel immersed in them. Can you think of any other connections between Harry Potter and Star Trek? We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at PotterversityPodcast@gmail.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.

    57 min
  3. Potterversity Episode 63: The Business of Witchcraft and Wizardry

    APR 14

    Potterversity Episode 63: The Business of Witchcraft and Wizardry

    Let's get down to business - in both the wizarding world and the fandom. Abigail Kohler, adjunct lecturer at Brown University's Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, is relatively new to Harry Potter but was quickly introduced to scholarship on the series through the Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College. In her own presentation at the 2024 conference, "From Wizard Wheezes to Etsy Empires: An Exploration of Fandom and Entrepreneurship," Abbie explored the types of businesses depicted in the books - including shops, restaurants, and publications - as well as Potter-inspired businesses created by fans. The wizarding world seems to have many consumer goods businesses that sell products but not many service-based businesses, such as plumbing or broom repair. Businesses like the Leaky Cauldron and Honeydukes serve as thresholds for Harry to enter magical areas like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. While commerce and wealth are often portrayed as evil in fantasy and children's media, they appear to be morally neutral in Potter, where a business can create good or bad things and their products can be used for good or evil, such as Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes items. Fans who create their own Potter-themed businesses are often motivated by a desire to participate in the wizarding world. Before there was so much official merchandise available, fans were creating the types of products they would want to have using their own artistic skills. Abbie surveyed 46 business owners, 44 of whom were women, and was surprised to find that most did not think of themselves as entrepreneurs, a term she advocates for more small business owners to claim for themselves. Fan businesses can also be a tool for positive change, allowing fans to support each other rather than a large corporation and a wealthy author and to reclaim their fandom for the LGBTQ+ community in the wake of the author's comments. Abbie feels that entrepreneurship can be a form of activism. She also offers some helpful tips for listeners who may be interested in starting their own business!

    1h 7m
  4. Potterversity Episode 59: Holding Space for Harry

    12/09/2024

    Potterversity Episode 59: Holding Space for Harry

    We're always holding space for Harry Potter, but no one does it quite like the Harry Potter Academic Conference. Our favorite event of the year was back in person at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia in October and full of interesting insights as usual. Katy and Emily talk with Potterversity producer and conference communications coordinator Laurie Beckoff and conference vice chair Lauren Camacci about the range of presentations and the wonderful community of scholar-fans. Emily, Laurie, and Katy discuss their respective papers: "Harry, Gawain, Green Knights, and Goblets," about the connections between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; "'All with Flaming Red Hair': Harry Potter and the Magical Redhead Tradition," on how Harry Potter engages with literary and historical depictions of redheads; and "The Petunia Palimpsest," about Fiona Shaw's portrayal of Petunia Dursley and Maarva Andor on the Star Wars show Andor. We also talk about some of our favorite papers from the weekend. Dumbledore was a popular topic and remains a contentious figure. Psychology and politics were present alongside literary analyses. We enjoyed presentations on Madam Pince and the Hogwarts library (Ian McLaughlin), sexual innuendo and maturation in Goblet of Fire (Bill Ward), the series as wainscot fantasy (Liam Butchart and Katherine Wang), property law in the wizarding world (Dorothea Keiter), entrepreneurship and business in the wizarding world as well as the fandom (Abigail Kohler), and a potluck panel about food in Harry Potter (organized by Mark-Anthony Lewis). There was plenty to learn from the plenary lecture by Priscilla Hobbs, author of Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials, as well as the invited talks by conference regular Brent Satterly and first-time presenter Julian Wamble, known for sharing snippets of his Harry Potter class on TikTok and his Critical Magic Theory podcast. The conference switches off annually between in-person and online events, so we look forward to joining a global community of scholars virtually in 2025.

    1h 6m
4.9
out of 5
45 Ratings

About

In the hallowed halls of Potterversity, hosts Katy McDaniel (Marietta College) and Emily Strand (Mt. Carmel College and Signum University) explore the Harry Potter series and wider Wizarding World from a critical academic perspective with scholars from a variety of fields, finding new ways to read and opening new doors. Made in association with MuggleNet.com.