Prophecy 2007: From Hero to Legends August 2 - 5, 2007 Toronto, Canada

Prophecy 2007 is an academic symposium about the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. A variety of daytime formal programming, taking place on Friday August 3rd and Saturday August 4th will include presentations, lectures, workshops, discussion panels and roundtables on a diverse range of topics.

One particular presentation includes the connections between the Deaf World and the Harry Potter World.
Opportunities Lost, Opportunities Ignored: A Presentation/Discussion of the Educational Problems of the Reading Phenomenon in the Deaf World in and in the World of Black Students – Presentation Wendy Richardson Supported by the scholarship from within the Deaf community, we can gain a clear understanding of how deaf students achieve/ appreciate the skill of reading--and where the Harry Potter series makes an unexpected connection to the lives and philosophy of the deaf. A related question about the reading habits of students of color--Black, Latino, Asian. Did those groups find enjoyment in the HP series? Do they recognize a connection to their own school / racial experiences? There was an unsatisfying silence to these questions which prompted an independent study of the peculiar indifference of some groups of students to the Potter phenomenon.

This is not the first presentation to make such connections. See:
Czubek & Greenwald (2005). Understanding Harry Potter: Parallels to the Deaf World. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on July 6, 2005 The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2005 10(4):442-450
http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/4/442