hi id be really interested to hear your thoughts on sociology and hp!!!
sorry for taking a while to respond, I made that post saying I was back and then I didn’t check this blog for 4 days, but now I am actually back.
my paper was specifically on race, stratification, and prejudice in hp but there are so many sociological-related things to write about the series (in fact there are entire books on it).
something I think is interesting is that in hp, race, as we think of it, isn’t really mentioned that much. all those people are upset about a black actress being cast as Hermione, but as Rowling and others have pointed out, there is ONE reference to Hermione’s skin color in the series, and it is something about her looking very brown. despite the few mentions of skin color, hp is basically a series about racism (as well as other themes, of course). the blood status system and the idea of blood purity is essentially a racial hierarchy with tons of real-world parallels (American south, apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany, etc), especially in the prejudice against and persecution of those lower down on the hierarchy whose blood is not ‘pure.’ blood status is also connected to socio-economic status. and the idea of blood purity has an interesting history in wizarding society, as prior to the witch burnings and the subsequent International Statute of Secrecy, muggles and wizards lived together a lot of the time and mixed marriages were common:
The concept of blood purity became more popularafter the International Statute of Secrecy was passed. However, the websitePottermore explains that due to centuries of intermarriage, few people weretruly pure-bloods and "[to] call oneself apure-blood was more accurately a declaration of political or social intent ('Iwill not marry a Muggle and I consider Muggle/wizard marriage reprehensible')than a statement of biological fact"
in my paper I connected all these issues and ideas in hp with our (American) society. I talked about institutionalized racism a lot, and how it is inherent in both the social structures in hp and in our world. the Muggle-born Registration Commission and the files on everyone’s blood status and political leanings (Arthur Weasley’s file in Umbridge’s office says that he is a pure-blood, but with “unacceptable pro-Muggle leanings”) is reminiscent of many events in our history, including McCarthyism and, much more recently, the Islamophobia and fear mongering so many politicians have taken to using. I actually mentioned Donald Trump in my paper when I said something about politicians/public figures using legitimate threats/concerns to push racist policies that would probably not be considered acceptable in other circumstances.
I also think there are a lot of parallels in terms of institutional violence. the structures meant to protect people (police, government, etc) are sometimes the ones hurting the people, which means you can’t go to them for help. instead you get groups like Dumbledore’s Army, grass-roots, community led resistance.
also, in going over related forms of prejudice such as that against ‘half-breeds’ I talked about Remus. when I first read the books I didn’t pick up on the HIV/AIDS metaphor (which was intentional on Rowling’s part, she’s talked about this before), but now that I am older it seems quite obvious. I mentioned it in my paper as an example of normalized prejudice, the kind of pervasive attitudes and policies that aren’t often questioned.
during my presentation I said the Umbridge was a much more frightening villain than Voldemort, because Voldemort is sort of this stereotypical evil that you don’t think of as being tangible or an immediate threat, but people like Umbridge exist, often in high places in our government, and that’s a lot scarier.
