Ithaca College

Professor Katharine Kittredge and IC graduate Carolyn Rennie (2017) co-authored an article, "Old-School Bullies at Hogwarts: The Pre-Victorian Roots of J.K. Rowling's Depiction of Child-on-Child Violence" which appeared in the collection Cruel Children in Popular Texts and Cultures which is part of Palgrave/Macmillan's prestigious Critical Approaches to Children's Literature series.

The essay combines Kittredge's research in the presentation of bullying in late-eighteenth century didactic texts with Rennie's in-depth knowledge of the Harry Potter series, showing how Rowling's work echoes the proto-school stories in its emphasis on child autonomy and resilience.

This essay represents the culmination of Rennie's exploration of the Harry Potter series throughout her four years at IC.  She did an in-class presentation on Hermione Granger for her Honors ICSM class, which led to doing an independent study on children's fantasy.  This was followed by her developing a one-credit course on the critical reception of the Harry Potter books which was taught as an Honors course in two subsequent semesters. She and Professor Kittredge co-presented an earlier version of this essay at the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Conference in November of 2016, and the final version of the essay was submitted following her graduation in May 2017.  Rennie is currently a law student at University of Connecticut School of Law.