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Biography:
Expertise in superstition may be an extension of Associate Professor of History Edmund Kern’s scholarship in early modern Europe and religious culture, but he claims no personal predilection for the irrational beliefs, save for the occasional toss of salt over the shoulder following an accidentally spilled shaker. While superstition was not among them, Kern did contribute a dozen major entries to the 2006 edition of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition, including essays on Austria, Inquisitorial Courts, and the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.
Since joining the history department at Lawrence University in 1992, a staple of Kern’s teaching has been the popular course, Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. In the late 1990s, when students in that class began questioning him about a certain literary boy-wizard, Kern applied his scholarship in witchcraft and witch hunts in bringing a historic sensibility to the cultural phenomenon that is Harry Potter, whom Kern compares to the Beatles in terms of uniquely combining quality with mass popularity.
“Harry drew me out of the past and made me focus more on the present,” says Kern of his latest scholarship. That focus has helped turn Kern into a bit of a celebrity in Harry Potter circles, regularly drawing inquiries from complete strangers who solicit his insights on series characters and plot lines. His 2003 book, The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices, is being revised for a second edition scheduled for publication next summer, while the original recently received an Indonesian translation. His article, “The Phoenix in Harry Potter: The Metaphoric Power of the Past,” was published in 2006 at Harry Potter for Seekers, a Web site devoted to religious themes in the Potter books.
Last July, the British newspaper The Observer described Kern as an “international rock god” after he presented “Snape’s Eyes,” a keynote address at Lumos 2006: A Harry Potter Symposium in Las Vegas. This fall, Kern will teach a new history department course, Thinking about Harry Potter, the prerequisite for which will be “copious knowledge” of all 4,000-plus pages of the seven-book series. Rather than the books themselves, the course will focus on the ever-increasing academic interest in Potter as cultural and literary icon.
(From http://www.lawrence.edu/news/facprofiles/kern.shtml)
Works by Edmund Kern:
Expertise in superstition may be an extension of Associate Professor of History Edmund Kern’s scholarship in early modern Europe and religious culture, but he claims no personal predilection for the irrational beliefs, save for the occasional toss of salt over the shoulder following an accidentally spilled shaker. While superstition was not among them, Kern did contribute a dozen major entries to the 2006 edition of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition, including essays on Austria, Inquisitorial Courts, and the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.
Since joining the history department at Lawrence University in 1992, a staple of Kern’s teaching has been the popular course, Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. In the late 1990s, when students in that class began questioning him about a certain literary boy-wizard, Kern applied his scholarship in witchcraft and witch hunts in bringing a historic sensibility to the cultural phenomenon that is Harry Potter, whom Kern compares to the Beatles in terms of uniquely combining quality with mass popularity.
“Harry drew me out of the past and made me focus more on the present,” says Kern of his latest scholarship. That focus has helped turn Kern into a bit of a celebrity in Harry Potter circles, regularly drawing inquiries from complete strangers who solicit his insights on series characters and plot lines. His 2003 book, The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices, is being revised for a second edition scheduled for publication next summer, while the original recently received an Indonesian translation. His article, “The Phoenix in Harry Potter: The Metaphoric Power of the Past,” was published in 2006 at Harry Potter for Seekers, a Web site devoted to religious themes in the Potter books.
Last July, the British newspaper The Observer described Kern as an “international rock god” after he presented “Snape’s Eyes,” a keynote address at Lumos 2006: A Harry Potter Symposium in Las Vegas. This fall, Kern will teach a new history department course, Thinking about Harry Potter, the prerequisite for which will be “copious knowledge” of all 4,000-plus pages of the seven-book series. Rather than the books themselves, the course will focus on the ever-increasing academic interest in Potter as cultural and literary icon.
(From http://www.lawrence.edu/news/facprofiles/kern.shtml)
Works by Edmund Kern:
- The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us About Moral Choices
