Wednesday, May 2, 2012

UC San Diego Focuses on Harry Potter with Profs Seth Lerer and Steve Potts, La Jolla Light reprint

The Magic of Medicine: Harry Potter’s world of wizardry inspires exhibit coming to Geisel Library

From UCSD Reports

The UC San Diego Libraries have been selected by the U.S. National Library of Medicine to host “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine,” a traveling exhibit that sheds light on the Renaissance traditions featured in the Harry Potter canon. The “show” runs May 6 through June 16 at Geisel Library.

• An opening reception will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 10 in the Seuss Room in Geisel Library with Potter-themed refreshments and entertainment. It will be followed by a 4 p.m. talk titled, “Harry Potter and the Magic of Books,” by Seth Lerer, dean of Arts & Humanities at UCSD.


• On May 24, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Seuss Room, Literature Professor Stephen Potts will give a talk on “Harry Potter and the Secrets of Order: Knowledge and Power from Renaissance to Hogwarts.” Potts, who teaches classes on Harry Potter, young adult fiction, and children’s literature, will discuss the influence of the magical tradition on the scientific revolution and the ethical issues that surfaced, as knowledge became a real power for change.
• On May 31, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Science & Engineering Library Events Room in the Geisel Library, Professor Ronald Graham, one of the world’s best known mathematicians, computer theorists, and technology visionaries, will explain the math behind magic in his talk, “Juggling Mathematics and Magic.”
Graham, who calls himself a “mathemagician,” is a skilled magician and juggler — ex-president of the International Jugglers Association. He is also co-author of “Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks.”

If you go

What: National Library of Medicine exhibit/lecture series, ‘Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine’
When: May 6-June 16
Where: Geisel Library, UCSD campus
Cost: Events are free and open to the public
Register for lectures: http://libguides.ucsd.edu/harrypotter
Exhibit background: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/harrypottersworld/

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