ENTERTAINMENT

Almost a year after publication of the final book in J.K. Rowling's series, you might think that interest in all things Harry Potter would be vanishing. You'd be wrong.

On Thursday through Sunday, Dallas will host "Portus 2008," the latest in a series of annual Potter conferences. It will mix the exuberant trappings of Potter obsession: quidditch games, a costume dance and – with serious scholarship – a presentation on "Harry Potter and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Organizers expect about 700 fans, some who want to delve into Jungian analysis and others who want to argue whether Hermione really should have married Harry.

In other words: Pointy-headed academia is meeting pointy-hatted Potter fandom.

Last year's conference, titled "Prophesy," was held in Toronto days after the release of the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

"So many of the fans there were saying, 'This is the end.' But we said, 'This is the very beginning,' " said Bekki Olivieri, a high school teacher in Southern California who is "Minister of Magic" for the Dallas event. "There is this whole world left to explore."

Whatever their academic specialty – from literature study to multicultural education – presenters at Portus find something to ponder in Ms. Rowling's saga.

"It's a blast for academics because she has built the story onto so many levels," said Travis Prinzi. Mr. Prinzi is working on a master's degree in secondary English education from the University of Rochester and a book about how traditional fairy tales influence and are influenced by culture. He's scheduled to talk about Christian symbols in the Potter saga.

The conference, named after a transportation spell, is not intended for kids. In fact, anyone between the ages of 14 and 17 must have a registered chaperone. But Portus isn't all stuffy analysis, not when attendees can dance to "wizard rock." Some like both.

"The Potter series appeals to people who like books. And guess what? Academics like books," said Henry Jenkins, head of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and a keynote speaker at Portus.

For the few untouched by the Potter cultural juggernaut: Harry Potter is a fictional character created by Ms. Rowling. The first book in the series about the boy wizard, his friends and their struggles against the evil Voldemort was published in 1997. The books – and later movies – have been record-breaking blockbusters.

The series spawned a subculture of Web sites, fan-written stories based on the characters and live meetings where participants dress in the robes and pointed hats described in the books.

Even in that context, the conferences produced by the Harry Potter Education Fanon organization are unusual. Starting in 2003, the organization that is producing Portus brought together fans and scholars. The inspiration was a bit of shrewd marketing, admitted Lee Hillman, who ran that first event.

Many academics who loved Potter had a hard time affording the travel to a traditional fan event, she said. So the group paired with schools near the conference site to offer Continuing Education Units that fans with academic credentials could use to sell their bosses on paying for part of the trip.

Like a successful spell, the formula continues to attract academics.

Dr. Jenkins of MIT, for instance, is fascinated by how mass culture has been fragmented into minicultures, facilitated by the Internet. For him, the Potter phenomenon is a perfect example. The interaction between the author and her fans is evidence of how online access affects that relationship, he said.

He points to the epilogue of the seventh book, where Ms. Rowling gives details about the future of major characters. That, he said, was her controlling response to fan-based speculations.

"She slams the door on their fingers in the last pages of the book," he said.

Catherine Belcher is an education professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles with a special interest in teaching Hispanics.

"Harry is an 'immigrant' " into a world of magic, she said. And that world is filled with symbols and ideas that are similar to those found in Mexican folk culture, she said.

In her hometown on the California-Mexico border, where 98 percent of the students are Hispanic and many speak only Spanish when they start school, the Potter books fly off the library shelves, she said.

Millie Gore is a special-education professor at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. As a former board member of the Texas ACLU, she started reading the series because of attacks on the books by some conservative Christians. She discovered plenty of plot points relating to how society treats people with disabilities.

"As soon as I encountered Neville Longbottom early in the first book, I recognized him as the prototypical child with a learning disability, whether in the real world in which I exist, or in the fantasy world of Harry Potter," she said.

Next term, she'll allow her special-education students to study a Potter book. "They will then analyze the disabilities in the book and how wizard society 'others' people with disabilities and therefore handicaps them," she said.

James Thomas is an English professor at Pepperdine University. He looks at the books and finds – fine literature. Not that he finds them to be perfect, mind you.

"The flaws are fun, too," he said. "The flaws are also fun in Moby-Dick."