A UT professor will give a presentation during a traveling Harry Potter exhibition while it’s in town.
Amy Billone, an associate professor of English, will present “Harry Potter and the Nineteenth-Century Dream Child” from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 20. The session will take place in the conference room of the Health Information Center-Preston Medical Library at the UT Medical Center.
Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine is a traveling exhibition that explores the link between Harry Potter and the history of science using materials from the National Library of Medicine.
In 1997, British author J. K. Rowling introduced the world to Harry Potter and a literary phenomenon was born. Although the story is a fantasy, the magic in the Harry Potter books is partially based on Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science and medicine. Incorporating the work of several fifteenth- and sixteenth-century thinkers, the exhibit examines important ethical topics such as the desire for knowledge, the effects of prejudice, and the responsibility that comes with power.
Billone’s areas of expertise are nineteenth-century literature and children’s and young adult literature. An accomplished poet, she also has a background in creative writing.
She wrote the introduction and notes for the Barnes and Noble Classics edition of Peter Pan published in 2005. She also has written a book that centers around Harry Potter and the nineteenth century dream child. The Future of the Nineteenth-Century Dream-Child: Fantasy, Dystopia, Cyberculture will be published with Routledge’s Children’s Literature and Culture Series in July 2016.
The Harry Potter exhibition can be viewed until May 21 during library hours. All events are free and open to the public. Complimentary parking is available.
For more information, visit the exhibit website or contact Kelsey Leonard at 865-205-5707.
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CONTACT:
Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)