That's probably too long for a marketable book title, even if it were a real Harry Potter book. It is, more or less, the title for one of the keynote addresses given this past weekend at Portus 2008, a conference...
Yeah, it's sexist. But I had several of the women at Portus tell me the same thing. Here's the setup: A single fellow could do far worse than connect with Harry Potter fandom as a way to meet women. Of...
The Portus 2008 conference is a Harry Potter-themed academic/fandom event going on the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas this weekend. Also in the hotel is a conference for Gospel for Asia, a Christian missionary organization that targets, duh, Asia. So...
Part of what makes "fandom" different from regular fans is the level of creativity brought to the enterprise. Here at Portus 2008, the conference going on this weekend in Dallas, many of the proceedings are academic and intellectual. And some...
Portus 2008 is an academic/fandom Harry Potter conference that's going on in Dallas. Here's the story I wrote about it a couple of days ago. I'm at one of the presentations, "Christ in the Forest, Aslan and Harry Walk to...
Catherine Belcher is a education professor at Loyola Marymount University who believes that the Potter books can be used in the classroom. She says that the fact that she teaches as a Jesuit school makes it easy to search for...
A bit of overview: Looks like the event will draw the 700 or so predicted. I've just attended a keynote luncheon -- held in a room with no wifi or even cellphone access. Go figure. But that was my first...
This panel is dear to my heart. I wrote a column saying that Rowling's revelation that she thought Dumbledore was gay was information that either should have been in the books -- or she should not have talked about it....
Here at the Portus 2008 conference, I'm in one of those presentations that really puts, as I described it in my advance, pointy-headed academics together with pointy-hatted Harry Potter fans. In this case the presenter is Edmund Kern, associate professor...
I've been wandering around the Anatole Hilton, site of the Portus 2008 Harry Potter conference -- and of a couple of other conventions. Many of the early-arrival Potter fans are dressed in robes and heavy peaked hats. (Surely "real" Dallas-based...
Think you know your Harry Potter? Then try this snazzy online quiz we've put together for you....
As promised, here's our first look at the Harry Potter symposium in Dallas this week. As Jeffrey Weiss points out: Pointy-headed academia is meeting pointy-hatted Potter fandom. Watch for more on Portus 2008 in days to come....
It's a big weekend for Potter fans in Dallas as the crowd prepares to gather for Portus 2008. We have plenty of Potter-related items in the hopper, including: -- Live blogging from the event. -- A fun triva quiz. --...
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