Phoenix Rising received a wide variety of programming proposals in many fields. These submissions were meant to address the diversity of study about Harry Potter as literature, art, a teaching tool, a cultural phenomenon, a springboard for creativity, and various other areas of scholarship. To facilitate the selection, Phoenix Rising depended on the decisions of several independent review boards, which evaluated presentations based on their relevance, representation of the widest possible variety of topics, and quality of scholarship. The review boards, in turn, represented the various areas in which Phoenix Rising receives the majority of its submissions; thus, each proposal could be evaluated by those most qualified to do so.
We are grateful to the board members listed below for lending their time and expertise to Phoenix Rising.
Academic Peer Review Board | Creative Review Board | Fandom Review Board | Professional Review Board
The Academic Peer Review Board examines proposals that are presented as scholarly studies or analyses in academic fields. They review each submission for current theory and scholarship.
Anne Hiebert Alton, a Professor of English at Central Michigan University, earned her Master of Arts in Children's Literature from the University of Calgary and her Doctor of Philosophy, with a specialization in Victorian Literature, from the University of Toronto. Her research and publication interests include children's literature, Victorian literature, fantasy, and the novel; and Dickens, the Brontës, Robert Louis Stevenson, Diane Duane, Jean Little, L. M. Montgomery, Anthony Browne, Maurice Sendak, P. L. Travers, E. L. Konigsburg, John Marsden, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Dr. Alton has also written "Generic Fusion and the Mosaic of Harry Potter" (in Harry Potter's World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives) and presented "Here's ... Harry!: The Popular Genres of Harry Potter."
Annalee Newitz is the author of Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture (Duke UP, 2006) and co-editor of White Trash: Race and Class in America (Routledge UP, 1997). A freelance writer in San Francisco, she is a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and publishes regularly in Popular Science and New Scientist. She has a Ph.D. in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley.
Suzanne Scott is a doctoral student of Critical Studies at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. In addition to presenting works on fan cultures and cult media at various conferences and working as a staff writer for the New York-based film magazine Reverse Shot, Ms. Scott is preparing to begin work on her dissertation, a study of the convergence between new media and fan narratives, focusing exclusively on Harry Potter fandom and multimedia texts. She is the Chair of Programming for Phoenix Rising.
Gwen Tarbox, an Associate Professor of English at Western Michigan University, specializes in youth culture, women's literature, and literary modernism. Her publications include The Clubwomen's Daughters: Collectivist Impulses in Progressive-era Girls' Fiction, a forthcoming book entitled Feminist Dialogues in Contemporary Girls' Fiction, and a number of articles on adolescent literature. An ardent fan of both literary and pop culture approaches to the Harry Potter phenomenon, Gwen teaches a course that brings the two perspectives together.
Catherine Tosenberger is a Ph.D candidate in children's literature and folklore at the University of Florida. Her dissertation "Potterotics: Harry Potter Fanfiction on the World Wide Web," under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Kidd, is an in-depth study of Potter fanfic and fandom from both literary and ethnographic perspectives. She has presented papers on fan cultures, folklore, and adolescent literature at a number of conferences, and is a contributor to the National Public Radio program Recess! Catherine is a longtime member of the Harry Potter fandom, and will read anything that involves Weasleys.
Karin Westman (M.A., Ph.D. Vanderbilt University) is an Associate Professor of English at Kansas State University, where she teaches courses in modern and contemporary British literature, including a course on Harry Potter. Her areas of interest include narrative studies, gender, performance and technology. She has presented and published most recently on J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman, among other contemporary British writers. She is currently completing J. K. Rowling's Library: Harry Potter in Context, a book-length study of the series within British literary history.
L. Rene Wright has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska, where she also teaches courses in the English Department. Her dissertation is titled "Re-imagining Genre: Comics, Literature, and Textual Form," and her academic interests include 20th Century American Poetry and Fiction, Visual Culture, Literary Theory, and Women's Studies.
Creative Review Board | Fandom Review Board | Professional Review Board
The Creative Review Board receives submissions that address craft and scholarship specific to writing and the visual and performing arts, as well as those that examine the creative process.
Michael C. Bolton received his M.A. from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. He currently works in television post production.
Rachel Caine is the author of the Weather Warden series. Book five, Firestorm, was released in September 2006, with a sixth book arriving in 2007. She also writes the contemporary fantasy/action series Red Letter Days for Silhouette Bombshell, and has recently sold a new young adult series. The first of the series, Glass Houses, will be on the shelves in 2007. Additionally, she wrote Sacrifice Moon for the new line of Stargate SG-1 media tie-in books as Julie Fortune, and as Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, her essays are included in several BenBella Books anthologies, including Seven Seasons of Buffy, Five Seasons of Angel, Stepping Through The Stargate, What Would Sipowicz Do?, Finding Serenity, Alias Assumed, and Mapping the World of Harry Potter. Her previous novels (as Roxanne Longstreet and Roxanne Conrad) include Stormriders, The Undead, Red Angel, Cold Kiss, Slow Burn, Copper Moon, Bridge of Shadows, and Exile, Texas. She and her husband, fantasy artist R. Cat Conrad, live in Texas with their iguanas Popeye and Darwin, a mali uromastyx named (appropriately) O'Malley, and a leopard tortoise named Shelley (for the poet).
Christine Lee Gengaro holds a Ph.D. in Music History from the University of Southern California. Dr. Gengaro teaches classes in music appreciation, theory, education, and research methods at three community colleges and at USC. She has presented scholarly papers at conferences in England, France, and the United States. Dr. Gengaro was also a presenter at The Witching Hour and a member of the vetting team. An attendee of Nimbus — 2003, The Witching Hour, and Lumos: 2006, Dr. Gengaro has been involved in the Harry Potter fandom since 2003. She recently finished her first novel.
Glockgal loves fanart and has been illustrating for almost 10 years. She's jumped between various fandoms but still sticks with Harry Potter due to the great canon, entertaining fandom and especially the fantastic fanart community on LiveJournal. She's finally doing something professional about her love for art and getting an education in video game art and design. Her fanart website can be found at twinners.org.
Marjorie Cohee Manifold is an assistant professor of art education at Indiana University — Bloomington, and teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in curriculum development and the instruction of visual art. Her interests include the relationship between aesthetic experience and learning, philosophy in art education, patterns of expression, and the aesthetic expression of grief. Her present research explores the art-making activities (fanart and cosplay) of youth involved in various participatory fan cultures, including Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.
Nystana has been enamored with Harry Potter and the fandom since 2001. She works as a freelancer in film and television productions.
L. Rene Wright has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska, where she also teaches courses in the English Department. Her dissertation is titled "Re-imagining Genre: Comics, Literature, and Textual Form," and her academic interests include 20th Century American Poetry and Fiction, Visual Culture, Literary Theory, and Women's Studies.
Academic Peer Review Board | Fandom Review Board | Professional Review Board
The Fandom Review Board receives submissions that address fan perspectives, and are charged with selecting proposals that represent current trends and issues across the diversity of the on- and off-line fan community.
BeccaFran has been a fan of Harry Potter ever since her husband dragged her kicking and screaming to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at the movie theater. He didn't know what he was getting himself into (the poor man) — she's been a part of the fandom ever since. An avid fan of Ginny Weasley (among other characters), BeccaFran led a roundtable discussion on Ginny's character development at 2005's The Witching Hour symposium. She plans to celebrate Phoenix Rising by eating lots of beignets and alligator gumbo.
Sarah Benoot is a member of species cubicus dwellerus in Arizona. Her current position allows little usage of her A.A.S. in Video Production from the Art Institute of Phoenix, but she practices constant vigilance for that script writing, lighting, or editing emergency that is sure to come up any time now. Her wide-ranging fandom activities include serving as a Coder Elf for FictionAlley's Fic Intake Team and as Assistant Chair of Formal Programming for The Witching Hour, but mostly just being amazed and impressed by the stories and art she sees produced every day. Sarah is the Exploratory Programming Secretary for Phoenix Rising.
Casey Fiesler is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she studied human-computer interaction, focusing on online communities. Her thesis was on weblog communities, roleplaying, and the Harry Potter fandom, and she presented on these topics at The Witching Hour in 2005. Casey also writes young adult fantasy and attended Clarion East in the summer of 2006. She is currently a first year law student at Vanderbilt University, and has a particular interest in how copyright laws apply to fanfiction.
Cleolinda Jones is a graduate student in the creative writing program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her parody "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Fifteen Minutes" first appeared on LiveJournal in 2004, and a parody of the first Harry Potter movie appeared in her 2005 book Movies in Fifteen Minutes.
McKay earned a bachelor of arts degree after double-majoring in English and History and a master's degree in English Literature, and she has presented papers at such professional conferences as the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Currently, she teaches composition and literature at the university level. McKay has been an active member of fandom since the early 1980s, of the online fandom since 1997, and of the Harry Potter fandom since 2001. She helped found the Snape Slash Fleet and was one of the original editors of the Daily Snitch newsletter. These days, she is most active in the Snape/Lupin ship, editing the Snupin Prophet newsletter and running the Pervy Werewolf community.
Richard is a 24-year-old market researcher living in London. He's been in the Harry Potter fandom since 2001. He's organized many "t00bages" — weekend get-togethers for fandomers — as well as a two-week fandom vacation in 2003. He also served on the fandom review board for The Witching Hour. His favorite character is Barty Crouch Jr. Really.
Starrysummer is a confused twentysomething graduate of a Southern California liberal arts college. Originally from the New York area and possibly living there again, she vacillates between plotting to rule the world and just wanting to go back to bed. She enjoys shiraz, black coffee, film noir, and pretending to be vegan. When immersed in the Potterverse, she particularly likes darkfic, blackcest and the giant squid, and enjoys being alternately needlessly pretentious and just plain silly. Her OTP is het/slash, and her dog is cuter than yours.
Academic Peer Review Board | Creative Review Board | Professional Review Board
The Professional Review Board selects proposals in specialized areas, such as education, library studies, business, law, and other fields and professional development areas.
Colette Drouillard is a doctoral student at Florida State University's College of Information. In addition, she is also the instructor librarian for the Goldstein Library at the College of Information. Ms. Drouillard is preparing to begin work on her dissertation, a study of the response of young readers to the Harry Potter series, what they believe they are responding to in the stories, and their perceptions of how this reading experience has impacted their future reading choices.
Doris Herrmann is an English/Language Arts teacher from Texas. She uses Harry Potter in her classroom to provide high-interest lessons to at-risk students. Along with her teaching career she is the Project Coordinator for The Leaky Cauldron website, appears on Pottercast, and is a forum administrator for The Leaky Lounge. Doris has three boys who eat as much in one day as most people do in a week. She loves surfing, the beach, and having long lunches with her friends at The Kemah Boardwalk.
Jan Kent is a licensed massage therapist living in beautiful central New York. In previous incarnations she held positions from women's clothing buyer to chamber of commerce administrator to self-employed upholsterer. Her long history of introducing children to sci-fi and fantasy began in 1977 when she loaded her young nieces and nephews into a station wagon and took them to see Star Wars at a drive-in theatre. Her adult daughter Lauren is responsible for Jan's current addiction to the Harry Potter universe. Jan possesses an affinity for spirituality, alternative healing, and esoteric subjects and has attended numerous expos and conferences as attendee and vendor. She coordinates WizardTies.com's day-to-day operations.
Bonnie Kunzel is an acknowledged expert on the subjects of young adult literature and science fiction and fantasy. She regularly presents on a national basis, including such topics as science fiction and fantasy for adults and teens, graphic novels, the best of the best in young adult fiction, Harry Potter read-alikes, and adult books for young adults. Ms. Kunzel is a past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association and has served on numerous committees, including the prestigious Best Books for Young Adults committee, the Margaret A. Edwards Award Committee and the ALEX committee, which is charged with selecting the best adult books for young adults each year. She is a regular reviewer for the journal VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates), specializing in the areas of science fiction and fantasy, and she is a science fiction and fantasy editor for NoveList, an on-line reader's advisory service. Her publishing credits include: First Contact: A Reader's Selection of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Strictly Science Fiction, which she co-authored with Diana Tixier Herald.
Kimberly Lowe, a business attorney, is a shareholder in the Corporate, Cooperatives, Securities, and Mergers & Acquisitions groups at Fredrikson & Byron. She has substantial experience advising private and public companies and cooperatives on acquisitions, mergers, periodic reporting obligations, corporate governance and securities compliance issues. Kimberly represents issuers, investors, and lenders in connection with public offerings, venture capital investments, commercial lending transactions and private placements of debt and equity securities. Kimberly also assists tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations with obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status, corporate governance issues, tax-exempt financings, joint ventures between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, mergers and consolidations. In addition, Kimberly assists charter schools with formation, IRS compliance and financings.
Vannessa McClelland is an environmental permitting engineer working for regional government in Washington State focusing in the air media. She works with other environmental permitting engineers throughout the state government on joint projects to reduce emissions from major industrial facilities. She also volunteers for the environment on local university and government projects by leading other volunteers in projects to remove invasive plant species and replanting the area with native plants. Reading is a passion for her and Harry Potter has been an obsession for the last few years. She enjoys discussing character goals and influences as well as speculating about the final outcome with local fans.
JoSelle Vanderhooft is a Utah-based poet, novelist and freelance writer. Her published or forthcoming books include 10,000 Several Doors, The Tale of the Miller’s Daughter, Vice of Kings, Enter, Elsinore, and Desert Songs, among others. Her poetry and short stories have appeared or will appear online and in print in Star*Line, Cabinet des Fées, Sybil’s Garage, Mythic Delirium, Reflection’s Edge, The Seventh Quarry, and others. She is an editor for the spec literary magazine Crow’s Nest, which she co-founded in 2005. She holds honors degrees in English and Theatre Studies from the University of Utah.
Academic Peer Review Board | Creative Review Board | Fandom Review Board