For those of us who have stuck with Harry from the proverbial cupboard under the stairs through his seven years at Hogwarts, the chance to bring our love for the series into the classroom could be truly magical. And while some English professors may roll their eyes and parents stick up their noses at the prospect of education and magic mixing, universities like Georgetown University and Yale University have already incorporated Harry Potter-themed courses into their curriculums. As a first-year, it boggles my mind to consider the myriad courses this university has to offer. The course descriptions of even the most tedious class makes me, a potential art history major, consider several superfluous minors. But with classes here at this university ranging from studies of Hollywood and Bollywood to the architecture of sentences, would a Harry Potter class really be out of the question?

At Yale University, a course titled "Christian Theology and Harry Potter" explores a variety of Christian themes found in the novels, including temptation, resurrection and evil. What these college students are learning is that Peter Pettigrew may be more than just Ron's pet rat in disguise; he could be a metaphorical Judas who betrays the Potters for Voldemort. And maybe literary analysis could shed new religious light on when Harry sacrifices his life for the good of wizard-kind only to be resurrected moments later-sans Mary Magdalene, perhaps.

Aside from the Christian motifs, the series lends itself well to be discussed in all different kinds of forums. Georgetown University's class, "Knights of Old and Harry Potter," examines medievalism in Harry Potter in conjunction with older European literature. The purpose of this course is to thematically connect old texts with selections from Rowling's series.

At Frostburg State University in Maryland, Professor George Plitnik teaches a course called "The Science of Harry Potter" in which he uses the series to teach students the fundamentals of physics. You may have at some point wished you could "apparate" (transport) yourself across campus, bypassing the mountainous trek to Upper Campus after a long day of classes, but Professor Plitnik conducts a serious study of this J.K.-Rowling-conjured idea using Einstein's Theory of Relativity. This class may be taking it just a bit too far by exploiting the popularity of Harry Potter for the sake of getting more students to sign up for the course. There are few students who would be okay with this type of class appearing on their college résumés when applying to graduate school. There are even fewer universities, certainly not this one, that would actually approve of such a class.

However, that's not to say that the popularity of the series should deter individuals from seriously studying the books at all. Popular literature is literature, too, and it should be given the same courtesy as any other novel. It would be prudent at this point to mention that Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway and Charles Dickens all wrote popular books during their eras. And yet, these authors' works aren't dismissed or disregarded merely because of their ability to resonate with their audiences. On the contrary, these works are revered and are considered to be classics that remain popular today.

Likewise, Harry Potter could be discussed in an intellectual environment-there's a reason it's maintained such a diverse and expansive audience from children to adults in its 10 year history.

Even the books' author wrote the series with the understanding that it has more depth than the surface story of an orphaned boy discovering he's a wizard.

On her website, Rowling responded to questions asking her to explain the terms pure-blood, half-blood and muggle-born. "[I] was chilled to see that the Nazis used precisely the same warped logic as the Death Eaters," says Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. "A single Jewish grandparent 'polluted' the blood, according to their propaganda." The idea of imposing a hierarchy based on the purity of one's blood is not just a plot in a children's book-it's bigotry, and it's a part of our history.

Brandeis is a prestigious school, but it also has an incredibly curious and open-minded student body. Rather than dismissing the series because of its popularity or using it as a ploy to increase a class roster, Harry Potter can and should be seriously studied at our university because within the text, as in many major texts, there is certainly something worth studying.