Dr. Julye Bidmead is the Director of the Center for Undergraduate Excellence and Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Chapman University, Orange, CA where she teaches classes such as “Deities, Demons, and Monsters: Mesopotamian Myths,” “Genesis and Gender,” “Archaeology of the Ancient Near East,” and “Deconstructing Hogwarts: Religion, Race, and Gender in Harry Potter.” Prior to Chapman, she taught at Miami University (OH) and California State University Fresno. Dr. Bidmead holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Vanderbilt University which focused on the religions and cultures of ancient Israel, Canaan, and Mesopotamia. She has held supervisory positions at many archaeological digs in Israel including the Megiddo Expedition, Lahav Research Project, and the Jezreel Expedition. Her publications include The Akitu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotamia, Invest Your Humanity, and numerous articles on Near Eastern religions, ritual studies, magic, and gender. Dr. Bidmead is currently finishing a manuscript, Recovering Women's Rituals in the Ancient Near East, that uncovers and examines women's religious and domestic rituals in antiquity. Her next project, Harry Potter: A Guide for the Critical, Caring, and Curious, a collaboration with her undergraduate students, explores the historical, religious, and social contexts of the Harry Potter series for a young adult audience.