Harry Potter and the Transmedia Immersive Literature Class

This weeks guest contributor is Dr. Emily Pendergrass. She works in literacy education at Vanderbilt and is a fellow graduate from The University of Georgia.  In the post she shares her experience working with students from different disciplines as they read common YA texts while preparing for a study abroad trip. Thanks Emily.

​“The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 London Premiere; July 2011). 

What could possibly bring a room full of graduate and undergraduate students from departments all across the university (i.e. Chemistry, Biomed, Economics, Engineering, English, Women’s Studies, Education)? A common interest in the Boy who Lived and a fascination with a magical school… Harry Potter.

​Stories are powerful in that they can bring together individuals from all walks of life. The Harry Potter series lives in many people who have imagined themselves fighting a dragon in the triwizard tournament, soaring on a Nimbus2000 in search of a snitch, and searching the Forbidden Forest for a giant. These powerful connections readers make to stories unites them with others who they may or may not ever engage with otherwise. Our students from all over campus bring unique experiences to the reading and rereading of this story that bonds them together for life. 

Welcome to an immersive literature class where we explore the world of Harry Potter, along with other texts and authors that inspired author J.K. Rowling, and consider the role of power and privilege within both the wizarding and our own worlds. This experience, which includes 2 weekends in the US and spring break in the UK, dives into reading the series with a social justice lens.

In a course designed to bring the books to life, we start our journey in Oxford, England where so many great authors have begun. Upon arrival students immediately break into teams and begin exploring historical and cultural sites around town. Additionally we add in author inspiration and actual film locations to a lengthy selfie scavenger hunt. 

A highlight of the trip is sitting in the room where Tolkien and Lewis wrote together and our VU students having an in-depth literature discussion on their works.  After a few days in Oxford, we hop on coach bound for Great Missenden where we experience the world of Roald Dahl. Here we not only visit the Roald Dahl Story Museum and Story Center, but we also read a book in Matilda’s Library, grab a coffee in the Twit Café, and visit the Petrol Pumps from Danny, the Campion of the World. 

C.S. Lewis’s inspiration for light post in Narnia as well as a lion.
(Look closely at the middle of the door.)

Our trip concludes with time in London where we see Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theater, the paintings of Dahl’s illustrator Quentin Blake, and a lengthy visit to Warner Brothers Studio: The Making of Harry Potter.  

The entrance into the Roald Dahl Museum. 

Dewey (1938), a pioneer in the idea of learning through experience, proposed that knowledge and skills that a person learns in one situation can help them to understand and react to subsequent experiences. Elaborating on this definition, students enrolled in the class read the texts, watch the films, perform scenes from The Cursed Child, watch Matilda: The Musical, stand in filming locations, visit inspiration sites for a fully immersive experience in the worlds of the authors and characters. ​

Diagon Alley inside the Warner Brothers’ Studio.

“20 years later...it's still the best story in the world,” stated a grad student standing in the middle of a London street earlier this month.

Books we read/reread as a class include
 
All 7 of the Harry Potter Series
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling,  Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany
Boy by Roald Dahl
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderlands by Lewis Carroll
Literature Circle Groups choose a modern day British Author: David Walliams, Jo Cotterill, Patrick Ness, etc.

Emily can be contacted at emily.s.pendergrass@vanderbilt.edu.