Muggles Abroad

With Good Reason

An English professor who loves the Harry Potter books brings a few lucky students each year to London to visit the magical sites in the fantasy series. Alicia DeFonzo (Old Dominion University) leads them to the set of Hogwarts school and Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station for 3 weeks of study of magical creatures, potions, and herbology. And: The epic fantasy series Game of Thrones will return for its six-episode, eighth and final season April 14. Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech) shows how the women of Westeros gain and lose power in the fictional patriarchal world of dragons and warfare. Later in the show: When segregation and Jim Crow locked African Americans out of Hollywood, the first independent film industry was born. L. Roi Boyd, III (Virginia State University) explains what motivated these early indie directors and who you might recognize acting in the films.