{"id":639,"date":"2012-04-27T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T15:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=639"},"modified":"2012-04-30T14:21:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T14:21:42","slug":"harry-potter-and-the-quest-for-enlightenment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2012\/04\/27\/harry-potter-and-the-quest-for-enlightenment\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter and the Quest for Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"group<\/a><\/p>\n

Dragons, mandrakes, and potions have taken over the cases outside Special Collections & University Archives!<\/p>\n

Students in Donna Parsons\u2019 Honors Seminar titled \u201cHarry Potter and the Quest for Enlightenment\u201d have curated an exhibit using materials from Special Collections. The exhibit is one part of a semester long project utilizing Special Collections materials for research.\u00a0 The students chose one item to represent their research and worked together to fit their items into themes for display.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Parsons\u2019 seminar has the students closely read the texts and analyze their themes as well as investigate the influences from the literary cannon and the effects on popular culture in the US and Britain.\u00a0 She envisioned the collaboration with Special Collections as an exciting opportunity to enhance student learning. \u201cThe Harry Potter series is filled with extensive references to science, literature, mythology, and history,\u201d Parsons says.\u00a0\u201cPartnering with Special Collections has\u00a0supplied my students with the resources needed to trace a specific reference and discuss its relevance to a particular scene, character, or plotline.\u00a0 The partnership has also provided the context for a deeper understanding of the series and its appeal to a diverse audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Prickman, Head of Special Collections & University Archives, \u00a0welcomed the collaboration.\u00a0 \u201cThe idea to have the students create an exhibition was Donna\u2019s, and we quickly agreed to it. Rather than showing or telling, we are giving them the chance to do their own showing and telling, which results in a unique learning opportunity that can only be experienced with access to original historical documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelsey Sheets, a student in the seminar, loved finding out how complex the world of Harry Potter really is.\u00a0 \u201cIn the past I have read books about how J.K. Rowling draws inspiration from a wide variety of historical and mythical sources and incorporates them into the series, but my own research [on links between the study of Potions and the muggle study of Chemistry] really solidified this point and made me appreciate the depth of the wizarding world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibit will be on display until June 12th on the third floor of the Main Library outside Special Collections & University Archives anytime the library is open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dragons, mandrakes, and potions have taken over the cases outside Special Collections & University Archives! Students in Donna Parsons\u2019 Honors Seminar titled \u201cHarry Potter and the Quest for Enlightenment\u201d have curated an exhibit using materials from Special Collections. The exhibit is one part of a semester long project utilizing Special Collections materials for research.\u00a0 TheContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Quest for Enlightenment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}