Civic Engagement Insights from the Harry Potter Alliance
Lessons learned from an outside-of-the-box approach to educating and mobilizing young people across the world by using parallels from the Harry Potter books.
About This Speaker
Andrew Slack created and co-founded the Harry Potter Alliance in 2005. Known for his inspirational speaking at dozens of Harry Potter fandom events, he has given keynote addresses at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, the Millennial Mega Mashup, a talk at TEDx Rome, and spoken at South by Southwest, Comic Con, Educating Our Democracy in the Digital Age hosted by former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Futures of Entertainment, National Conference for Media Reform, the Annenberg Presidential Learning Center, and symposiums at MIT, Brandeis, and Tufts University. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, Andrew is dedicated to the building of a movement that harnesses the energy of popular culture, modern myth, and social media to transform our lives both personally and collectively.
You can Follow him on Twitter at @andrewslack.
Mentioned
- “Cultural acupuncture”: Fan activism and the Harry Potter Alliance
- Nerdfighters: “bringing nerds together to increase awesome and decrease world suck”
- The Imagine Better Project: a grassroots approach to harnessing the energy of popular culture, modern mythology and social media for social change
- VlogBrothers: YouTube vlog series run by brothers John & Hank Green; topics range from video games to science to pop culture and original songs
- Novelist John Green uses social media to push unfinished book to #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
- Avaaz.org: campaigning community bringing people-powered politics to decision-making worldwide
- International Quidditch Association and Wizard Rock: two examples of real-life actualization of Harry Potter culture
- LeakyNews.com: originally a Harry Potter fansite; now an pop culture news site that relies on user-submitted content
List of Hangout Participants
