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Rigorous college course immerses students in world of Harry Potter
Class starts ambitious goal of creating first Potter encyclopedia

DAHLONEGA (June 29, 2007) – An ambitious literary project is underway at North Georgia College & State University this summer in a nine-week English course whose participants, 44 undergraduate and graduate students, are hoping to create a lasting body of work that will become part of one of modern literature’s biggest phenomenons – J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter saga.

	Brian Corrigan

Professor Brian Corrigan has developed a rigid, intense course to facilitate completion of the project – the first Harry Potter encyclopedia – through a unique method called immersion learning.

“The goal of immersion learning is to place the student physically into the world he or she studies,” Corrigan said. “The course, called Harry Potter and the Legion of Night, is unique in several aspects.”

Corrigan said that this is the first time immersion learning has focused upon a current literary work – the final book in the Harry Potter series – that has yet to be released. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will come out in July, during the latter part of the course.  

Students may know the conclusion to other literary works and that colors their perceptions, Corrigan said.

“With ‘Deathly Hallows,’ no one in the class will know or can find out where this literary odyssey will end. Students will very truly live the experience as it unfolds this summer with the release of the final book in the series,” Corrigan said.

Quidditch

Part of the immersion experience is a competitive summer-long tournament of Quidditch, the game in the Potter novels that has competitors scoring points on flying broomsticks. Minus the flying part, the students follow a 50-page rule book for the sport, a combination of games including Frisbee, dodge ball, soccer, basketball and Trivial Pursuit.

Harry Potter and the Legion of the Night is so named because the class meets at night at various locations on campus. Week-by-week they pour over research material and dissect every chapter of the books. Students work within a strict framework to make sure they stay on track in order to finish a publishable manuscript.

By creating The Encyclopedia of Harry Potter – a project intended for worldwide publication – the class will do more than merely report findings, Corrigan said. It will work as a symbiotic cooperative, each student adding a piece to the overall project, all relying on each for a successful completion.

Gena Trust, an undergraduate English major leading the House of Slytherin – one of four houses from the books – beat out 80 other applicants to get into the course.

“Right now, Harry Potter is food, water and air – it’s my world,” the 28-year-old said.

“The goal of the course is to really create a workable, publishable product in a short period,” said Trust, who averages 30 hours a week researching Potter mythology. “This is an incredible real-world experience while I’m still in college.”

Corrigan, who is the Georgia Writers Association’s 2006 Author of the Year and general editor of the Compendium of Renaissance Drama, plans for select students to promote the encyclopedia across the country if it is picked up by a publishing house.

“This activity will teach students with a taste for writing and publication all about the realities of the book-publishing industry,” he said. “They will learn by doing, which is the goal of immersion learning.”

More than 125 students applied for the course. The 44 selected took part in a Harry Potter “Sorting Hat” ceremony in the spring and after being divided into the four houses of Hogwarts from the novels, they started their collective task to chronicle the world of Harry Potter.

Harry Potter game turned into real-world tournament

		Quidditch was a real-life experience for 44 students during last week’s three-game tournament. Two teams, called “houses,” competed during each game. At left, Slytherin House “chaser” Nick Fitzpatrick, grabs the “quaffle” while being blocked by Hufflepuff Houses’ Sarah Stack. Teams score by getting the “quaffle” through the giant rings.

DAHLONEGA (June 26, 2007) – Quidditch, the game made famous in the Harry Potter books and movies, has arrived at North Georgia College & State University. NGCSU is hosting a full summer of Quidditch on the central drill field every Thursday at 7:45 p.m., June 28 - Aug. 2. The 44 Quidditch players – divided into four competing “houses” central to the Harry Potter mythology – are enrolled in a literature course focusing on the fictional book series.

“Several other groups around the world have put together Quidditch games,” explained Dr. Brian Corrigan, who compiled a 50-page manual for the North Georgia version. “But this is the first time that an entire season of four-team Quidditch has been attempted.”

The teams compete against one another each week and, as in the books, the final victor will win the house cup, a valuable prize that Corrigan is keeping under wraps.

In J.K. Rowlings’ books, Quidditch players fly on broomsticks, but that and other aspects of the game have been modified on the North Georgia campus.

“It is a real game,” explained Corrigan. “It is a mixture of ultimate Frisbee, keep-away, dodge ball, soccer, football, basketball, and even Trivial Pursuit. It is the closest thing to the book’s game that mere mortals can achieve.”

Matches are free and open to the public and Corrigan promises the audience will play a role in the summer tournament.
 

Read news articles about it at NGCSU In The News

Two major building projects take shape on campus

	Construction crews on June 1 work on  the retaining wall that will run parallel next to the Recreation Center & Parking Deck. The building foundation will be laid in October.
	The retaining wall is nearly finished on June 22. Rebar will go in front of the wooden wall and then 10 inches of a concrete-type solution called shotcrete will be sprayed on the wall to reinforce it.

DAHLONEGA (June 25, 2007) – Major construction at North Georgia College & State University on two new building projects – the Recreation Center & Parking Deck and the Library Technology Center – has caused significant change to the campus landscape since May. The combined $48 million construction projects are expected to be completed in 2008.

Progress on both projects closed or altered the two main campus entrances on Chestatee Street and unearthed entire sections of Georgia Circle, the campus’s main road, through much of June. The section of Georgia Circle in front of the library construction project no longer exists and the landscape will become green space once the building is complete.

Over the past month, a towering crane drilled more than 270 holes, each 55 feet deep, to lay the deep foundation for the library building with steel and concrete later filling in the holes. 

Project manager Steve Gallant said that most of the underground site work is done and a Whiting Turner crew will start work on the first floor today.

A few hundred feet from that area, construction crews have completed cutting out narrow slices of asphalt in Georgia Circle in order to run fiber optic cable. 

Construction workers guide a saw as it carves out asphalt from the road. Fiber optic cables were placed underground and will connect a computer network server in Dunlap Hall with the new library computers.

“The fiber optics now under the road will connect the new library to one of the main computer network servers in Dunlap Hall,” Gallant said. “More fiber optic cables will be installed on campus as part of a larger upgrade to the university’s technology infrastructure.” 

The other major building project, the Recreation Center & Parking Deck, is under construction with the Winter Construction Company.

	A towering crane drilled 55-foot-deep holes to lay in the deep foundation for the three-story library. Work on the first floor of the library officially starts today.

“We’re making some good progress and we have already accomplished a lot,” Gerald Lord, the project manager, said. “We had to do some redesign work because of underground water and some other unforeseen conditions.”

Water from the ground needs to be pumped from the site, which will start this week. After the ground water is pumped the building site can be graded.

Behind Hoag Student Center, the elevation of Church Street has already been raised to a rough grading level so that it will tie into a new plaza that connects the Recreation Center with the student center and current library.

“Once the concrete foundation is in you’ll start to see dramatic changes and the parking deck will begin to go up quickly,” Lord said.

The foundation is expected to be poured in October.

This page last modified on: Thursday, 06 December 2007 15:47:37 -0500 by University Relations    

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