[Englecturers] Harry Potter Conference at UCR!

[englecturers at lists.ucr.edu]

>Dear English Lecturers,
>
>I am proud to announce that a Harry Potter Mini-Conference, "Pottermania 
>2005," cosponsored by the English Department and the Center for Ideas and 
>Society, will be held on Friday, October 14, 2005.  Given the great 
>interest in all things Potter, and the fact that so many UCR grad students 
>and lecturers are interested in the books, it seems that a Potter 
>conference is a natural.  The idea behind this conference is simple--to 
>provide local scholars and interested Potterites with a forum for 
>discussion and exploration of some of the varied themes in the books.
>
>With the broad interest among undergrads, local high school students, and 
>the press in the Harry Potter books and Potter phenomenon, we have decided 
>to attempt a mini-conference that is scholarly but at the same time more 
>welcoming to the non-scholar than some English conferences.  Therefore, we 
>have decided to keep our sessions short, with shorter papers and more time 
>for discussion, as well as ending the conference with a  free-wheeling 
>panel discussion.  If you have a Harry Potter paper that you wish to 
>submit, or if you have wanted to write about Potter but have yet to do so, 
>this is a great opportunity to do so.  We are asking for papers and other 
>creative presentations of approximately 10 minutes in length (short, we 
>know, but exciting as well).  Please send abstracts of one to two pages to 
>me at svonkco at netzero.com by September 5 (please do not respond to me on 
>the listserve, as I seem not to be a member).  If any of you are interested 
>in helping with the planning and execution of this one-day conference, your 
>assistance would be very welcome indeed!  Once again, contact me at 
>svonkco at netzero.com, or drop a note into my box in the English department.  
>I hope that a lot of you join in, either as presenters, as moderators, as 
>members of the planning committee, or just as active and welcome 
>participants.  Thanks,  Craig Svonkin
>
>
>

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