Edited Collections by Bertha Chin
The concept of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses through ... more The concept of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses through websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, has been steadily gaining attention over the last few years. Crowdfunding the Future undertakes a dynamic interdisciplinary approach to the examination of the new, and growing, phenomenon of crowdfunding and its encompassment of digital society and media industries. The book offers a wide range of perspectives and empirical research, providing analyses of crowdfunded projects, the interaction between producers and audiences, and the role that websites such as Kickstarter play in discussions around fan agency and exploitation, as well as the ethics of crowdfunding. With a series of chapters covering a global range of disciplines and topics, this volume offers a
comprehensive overview on crowdfunding, examining and unraveling the international debates around this increasingly popular practice. The book is suitable for courses covering media studies, fandom, digital media, sociology, film production, anthropology, audience, and cultural
studies.
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Peer-Reviewed Articles by Bertha Chin
Transformative Works and Cultures (Vol 15), Mar 15, 2014
Current scholarship on fandom has been preoccupied with examining the changing relationship betwe... more Current scholarship on fandom has been preoccupied with examining the changing relationship between media industry professionals and fans. Media producers, celebrities, and industry insiders are increasingly establishing contact with fans, bypassing traditional media entertainment outlets to provide them with information directly. This contact is facilitated by social media networks. Fans serve as grassroots campaigners, promoters, and sometimes even public relations officers, acting as liaisons between media producers, celebrities, or industry insiders and fandom in general. In doing so, they take on roles traditionally fulfilled by professional PR and marketing personnel, and they do it for free, resulting in accusations that they are being exploited for their labor. However, fans do not necessarily view themselves as being exploited. We need to consider the possibility that they may regard their contributions as a service—or gift—to fandom. In examining the roles played by two popular fan sites, Sherlockology and Galactica.tv, I propose to examine how fan labor may be considered an act of gift giving in fandom.
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Transformative Works and Cultures (Vol 15), Mar 15, 2014
This conversation among Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Myles McNutt, and Luke Pebler about the Veroni... more This conversation among Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Myles McNutt, and Luke Pebler about the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign to fund a film assesses the implications of crowd sourcing and fan labor.
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Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, Jun 2013
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Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television, Feb 14, 2013
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Social Semiotics, Jan 1, 2008
In this article we argue that citizen journalist debates surrounding weblogs, or blogs, have ... more In this article we argue that citizen journalist debates surrounding weblogs, or blogs, have tended to displace attention from the ways in which specific media professionals (eg those working on television drama) have used blogging as a promotional tool. Rather than challenging ...
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Available at: www. cult-media. com [Accessed 11 …, 2002
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Journal Articles by Bertha Chin
Transformative Works and Cultures, Mar 15, 2014
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As guest editors of this special issue of New Media & Society, we examine the concept
of crowdfun... more As guest editors of this special issue of New Media & Society, we examine the concept
of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses
through websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, a practice that has been steadily
gaining attention in the last few years, across many different sectors of society. We
introduce the nine articles comprising the special issue and unravel the developments
and challenges involved in these processes, concluding with suggestions for theoretical
explorations and empirical considerations of the evolution and growth of crowdfunding
within digital society.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Book Chapters by Bertha Chin
Controversies in Digital Ethics
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Special Issue Journals by Bertha Chin
New Media & Society, 2014
As guest editors of this special issue of New Media & Society, we examine the concept of crowdfun... more As guest editors of this special issue of New Media & Society, we examine the concept of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses through websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, a practice that has been steadily gaining attention in the last few years, across many different sectors of society. We introduce the nine articles comprising the special issue and unravel the developments and challenges involved in these processes, concluding with suggestions for theoretical explorations and empirical considerations of the evolution and growth of crowdfunding within digital society.
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Academic Interviews by Bertha Chin
Transformative Works and Cultures, Sep 15, 2014
Orlando Jones, an American film and television writer, producer, and actor who currently plays Ca... more Orlando Jones, an American film and television writer, producer, and actor who currently plays Captain Frank Irving in Fox’s Sleepy Hollow, provides an intriguing example of how producers and fans can engage in a receptive and dynamic relationship through social media, most specifically through Twitter and Tumblr. We interviewed Jones to ascertain how a regular in a popular television show perceives and maintains this form of communication with fans; how his enthusiasm for fan studies has unfolded; and how he has negotiated and managed fan controversy.
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Conference Presentations by Bertha Chin
On 21st March 2015, Rogue Events, the event company that organises Supernatural conventions in th... more On 21st March 2015, Rogue Events, the event company that organises Supernatural conventions in the UK announced the inclusion of Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow) to the lineup, joining main and recurring cast to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the show. Known for his active engagement with various fandoms on social media, the announcement immediately drew criticism from Supernatural fans. Fans argue that Jones was not directly involved in the show (even though this isn’t a new practice by Rogue Events); that his high-profile shipping of Destiel makes him a divisive and inappropriate guest; and his own declaration of fandom does not make him a fan.
Along with questions on the notions of the ‘authentic’ fan, the backlash also hints at the gate-keeping that fans perform. This paper intends to explore these issues, focusing on how this might reveal the complicated nature of fandom and anti-fandom, further suggesting that fandom isn’t always beautiful.
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The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (BSG) (Syfy, 2004-2009), while based on the cult 1978 TV ser... more The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (BSG) (Syfy, 2004-2009), while based on the cult 1978 TV series, also created memorable and iconic characters of its own. As a large ensemble show, secondary characters such as Chief Galen Tyrol, Karl “Helo” Agathon, Anastasia “Dee” Dualla and Cally Henderson Tyrol also develop their own fan followings. These characters continue to be celebrated in fan and comic conventions, not just through fans’ cosplay but also through the actors’ appearances at these convention spaces.
Matt Hills’s work on subcultural celebrities (2003, 2006) defined as “mediated figures who are treated as famous only by and for their fan audience” (2003, p. 61) have noted that traditional concepts on the ‘celebrity’, framed within the context of distance, is too rigid. Cult TV personalities do not merely interact with their fans from a mediated distance, but may also consistently have personal contact with them at conventions, signing events and other personal appearances. Hills and Williams (2005, p. 237) remark that subcultural celebrities display a situated agency that is a constant reflection of their roles “within hierarchies of production…[and their] imagined and embodied relationships with fandom”. Does the actors’ presence on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook extend this situated agency, even when the show has been off the air since 2009 and the actors have since appeared - and starred in - other television shows such as Dollhouse and The Bridge?
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Chris Rojek (2001) identifies our interaction with celebrities as a ‘para-social’ one that is con... more Chris Rojek (2001) identifies our interaction with celebrities as a ‘para-social’ one that is constructed through the mass media rather than physical contact. However, the proliferation of social media networks such as Twitter has altered the way we view celebrities, and in particular, the fan/celebrity relationship. Muntean and Peterson (2009) suggest that celebrity tweeting inserts an “authentic voice” to the creation and shaping of the star persona, while Marwick and boyd (2011) propose that there is always the “possibility of interaction” on Twitter. Hargittai and Litt’s 2011 study on the adoption of Twitter among young adults suggest that access to celebrities is a high motivator. Given this shared symbolic space between fan and celebrity, does this heighten fan expressions of love and hate towards a celebrity?
Fans commonly tweet celebrities, imploring to be followed or to have their tweets responded to, with some resorting to spamming or threatening celebrities in order to get noticed. On the other end of the spectrum, fans have not been shy about declaring their frustrations and hatred of unpopular (TV) characters and/or plotlines directly to celebrities. Being mindful so as not to pathologise these interactions and recognising, as Dunlap and Wolf (2010) appeal, that fan studies must acknowledge both ‘positive’ and ‘negative‘ fan emotions and practices, this paper intends to explore fans’ expectations of their interaction with celebrities on Twitter, and to question if social media platforms complicate the notion of boundaries.
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In September 2012, Tartarus, a science fiction short film starring Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Ga... more In September 2012, Tartarus, a science fiction short film starring Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse) was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter for $24, 072, slightly more than its original $20,000 funding goal. The filmmakers alleged that the film will revolutionise the genre of science fiction, and the final product, along with various other perks such as autographed scripts, t-shirts, posters, as well as tickets to the film premiere in Los Angeles were promised to be delivered to funders by February 2013. Initially, updates were frequent, and funders were updated with various benefits like glimpses into storyboards, artwork, location scouts and a sampling of the soundtrack. By March 2013, funders were informed of the film’s title change to “Rust” to better reflect the story, and that new producers were being brought in, but no mention was made about the initial estimated delivery of the finished film. Updates and communication dropped off after the March update, and in December 2013, the filmmakers notified funders that the film has been delayed because of budget constraints, and Penikett, whose name and familiarity with science fiction audiences were used to generate interest during the crowdfunding period, is no longer attached to the project. On the comments section of the Kickstarter page for the film, funders are asking for refunds, citing that there has been a lack of development and communication by the filmmakers, and chiefly, the main reason of their support for the film (Penikett) is no longer involved.
Technological change has enabled filmmakers to look for alternative forms of film financing and distribution that is not necessarily tethered to Hollywood’s traditional systems. Debates surrounding crowdfunding have centred on the appropriateness of whether Hollywood A-listers should be asking their fans for money, especially after the success of Veronica Mars’s crowdfunding campaign. This paper proposes to explore the notion of accountability when filmmakers take to crowdfunding: what are the funders’ risk, but at the same time, are the reputations of the filmmakers and cast involved affected when things within the production change?
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American celebrities, such as the star of Arrow (CW, 2012-present) Stephen Amell and one of the l... more American celebrities, such as the star of Arrow (CW, 2012-present) Stephen Amell and one of the lead actors of Sleepy Hollow (Fox, 2013-present) Orlando Jones, have taken to social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to maintain their own celebrity persona and to interact with their fans. In the actors’ interaction with fans across the various platforms, both Amell and Jones have openly acknowledged specific groups of fans who support the relationship of certain characters on their shows, known in fandom as ‘shippers’ (Jones also openly acknowledge shippers from a different show aired on a different network in America). These actors’ actions are often said to be “breaking the fourth wall” as they engage directly with, and are assumed to be openly supporting a specific group of fans, and they have thus been subjected to several controversies in fandom. While they are celebrated as the “captain of the ship” by fans who support the same relationship, others criticise their involvement. Jones, for example, was subjected to an onslaught of fan hate when he tweeted in support of the Dean/Castiel pairing (otherwise known as Destiel) from Supernatural, and in a Twitter exchange with a fan, was told not to publicise the ‘ugly side of fandom’ (i.e. the conflict and hate) if he wanted to identify as one of the fans.
This begets the question of limitations and policing in the producer-fan relationship. While studies have celebrated the blurring of boundaries between producers and fans, in this paper, I want to suggest and explore the policing that fans place on the producer-fan relationship.
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"
The recent crowdfunding success of the Veronica Mars movie via Kickstarter has incited a lot o... more "
The recent crowdfunding success of the Veronica Mars movie via Kickstarter has incited a lot of debates. These debates have questioned if the so-called cynical and calculative move by Warner Brothers and Rob Thomas, the show's creator, was exploiting fans' love for the show; or if its success marks a shift in the media entertainment industry as well as signalling new ways of mobilising participatory fandom, particularly through the utilisation of social media. While these debates are certainly important, questions also need to be posed about what this means for the fans, if donating to the project - in effect, investing in the production of the film – changes their relationship with media producers and alters their view of the media property's ownership.
In this paper, I propose to explore fans’ reasons for donating to the Veronica Mars movie campaign and if this, in their view, somehow changes their relationship to Rob Thomas and what this ultimately may mean for other projects and other media producers which seek to mobilise fans to fund their projects via sites like Kickstarter. Will this easy connection to fans, facilitated by social media networks, open fans up to exploitation, or is this be a gradual evolution of fandom and fans’ relationship with media producers?"
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Edited Collections by Bertha Chin
comprehensive overview on crowdfunding, examining and unraveling the international debates around this increasingly popular practice. The book is suitable for courses covering media studies, fandom, digital media, sociology, film production, anthropology, audience, and cultural
studies.
Peer-Reviewed Articles by Bertha Chin
Journal Articles by Bertha Chin
of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses
through websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, a practice that has been steadily
gaining attention in the last few years, across many different sectors of society. We
introduce the nine articles comprising the special issue and unravel the developments
and challenges involved in these processes, concluding with suggestions for theoretical
explorations and empirical considerations of the evolution and growth of crowdfunding
within digital society.
Book Chapters by Bertha Chin
Special Issue Journals by Bertha Chin
Academic Interviews by Bertha Chin
Conference Presentations by Bertha Chin
Along with questions on the notions of the ‘authentic’ fan, the backlash also hints at the gate-keeping that fans perform. This paper intends to explore these issues, focusing on how this might reveal the complicated nature of fandom and anti-fandom, further suggesting that fandom isn’t always beautiful.
Matt Hills’s work on subcultural celebrities (2003, 2006) defined as “mediated figures who are treated as famous only by and for their fan audience” (2003, p. 61) have noted that traditional concepts on the ‘celebrity’, framed within the context of distance, is too rigid. Cult TV personalities do not merely interact with their fans from a mediated distance, but may also consistently have personal contact with them at conventions, signing events and other personal appearances. Hills and Williams (2005, p. 237) remark that subcultural celebrities display a situated agency that is a constant reflection of their roles “within hierarchies of production…[and their] imagined and embodied relationships with fandom”. Does the actors’ presence on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook extend this situated agency, even when the show has been off the air since 2009 and the actors have since appeared - and starred in - other television shows such as Dollhouse and The Bridge?
Fans commonly tweet celebrities, imploring to be followed or to have their tweets responded to, with some resorting to spamming or threatening celebrities in order to get noticed. On the other end of the spectrum, fans have not been shy about declaring their frustrations and hatred of unpopular (TV) characters and/or plotlines directly to celebrities. Being mindful so as not to pathologise these interactions and recognising, as Dunlap and Wolf (2010) appeal, that fan studies must acknowledge both ‘positive’ and ‘negative‘ fan emotions and practices, this paper intends to explore fans’ expectations of their interaction with celebrities on Twitter, and to question if social media platforms complicate the notion of boundaries.
Technological change has enabled filmmakers to look for alternative forms of film financing and distribution that is not necessarily tethered to Hollywood’s traditional systems. Debates surrounding crowdfunding have centred on the appropriateness of whether Hollywood A-listers should be asking their fans for money, especially after the success of Veronica Mars’s crowdfunding campaign. This paper proposes to explore the notion of accountability when filmmakers take to crowdfunding: what are the funders’ risk, but at the same time, are the reputations of the filmmakers and cast involved affected when things within the production change?
This begets the question of limitations and policing in the producer-fan relationship. While studies have celebrated the blurring of boundaries between producers and fans, in this paper, I want to suggest and explore the policing that fans place on the producer-fan relationship.
The recent crowdfunding success of the Veronica Mars movie via Kickstarter has incited a lot of debates. These debates have questioned if the so-called cynical and calculative move by Warner Brothers and Rob Thomas, the show's creator, was exploiting fans' love for the show; or if its success marks a shift in the media entertainment industry as well as signalling new ways of mobilising participatory fandom, particularly through the utilisation of social media. While these debates are certainly important, questions also need to be posed about what this means for the fans, if donating to the project - in effect, investing in the production of the film – changes their relationship with media producers and alters their view of the media property's ownership.
In this paper, I propose to explore fans’ reasons for donating to the Veronica Mars movie campaign and if this, in their view, somehow changes their relationship to Rob Thomas and what this ultimately may mean for other projects and other media producers which seek to mobilise fans to fund their projects via sites like Kickstarter. Will this easy connection to fans, facilitated by social media networks, open fans up to exploitation, or is this be a gradual evolution of fandom and fans’ relationship with media producers?"
comprehensive overview on crowdfunding, examining and unraveling the international debates around this increasingly popular practice. The book is suitable for courses covering media studies, fandom, digital media, sociology, film production, anthropology, audience, and cultural
studies.
of crowdfunding, where grassroots creative projects are funded by the masses
through websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, a practice that has been steadily
gaining attention in the last few years, across many different sectors of society. We
introduce the nine articles comprising the special issue and unravel the developments
and challenges involved in these processes, concluding with suggestions for theoretical
explorations and empirical considerations of the evolution and growth of crowdfunding
within digital society.
Along with questions on the notions of the ‘authentic’ fan, the backlash also hints at the gate-keeping that fans perform. This paper intends to explore these issues, focusing on how this might reveal the complicated nature of fandom and anti-fandom, further suggesting that fandom isn’t always beautiful.
Matt Hills’s work on subcultural celebrities (2003, 2006) defined as “mediated figures who are treated as famous only by and for their fan audience” (2003, p. 61) have noted that traditional concepts on the ‘celebrity’, framed within the context of distance, is too rigid. Cult TV personalities do not merely interact with their fans from a mediated distance, but may also consistently have personal contact with them at conventions, signing events and other personal appearances. Hills and Williams (2005, p. 237) remark that subcultural celebrities display a situated agency that is a constant reflection of their roles “within hierarchies of production…[and their] imagined and embodied relationships with fandom”. Does the actors’ presence on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook extend this situated agency, even when the show has been off the air since 2009 and the actors have since appeared - and starred in - other television shows such as Dollhouse and The Bridge?
Fans commonly tweet celebrities, imploring to be followed or to have their tweets responded to, with some resorting to spamming or threatening celebrities in order to get noticed. On the other end of the spectrum, fans have not been shy about declaring their frustrations and hatred of unpopular (TV) characters and/or plotlines directly to celebrities. Being mindful so as not to pathologise these interactions and recognising, as Dunlap and Wolf (2010) appeal, that fan studies must acknowledge both ‘positive’ and ‘negative‘ fan emotions and practices, this paper intends to explore fans’ expectations of their interaction with celebrities on Twitter, and to question if social media platforms complicate the notion of boundaries.
Technological change has enabled filmmakers to look for alternative forms of film financing and distribution that is not necessarily tethered to Hollywood’s traditional systems. Debates surrounding crowdfunding have centred on the appropriateness of whether Hollywood A-listers should be asking their fans for money, especially after the success of Veronica Mars’s crowdfunding campaign. This paper proposes to explore the notion of accountability when filmmakers take to crowdfunding: what are the funders’ risk, but at the same time, are the reputations of the filmmakers and cast involved affected when things within the production change?
This begets the question of limitations and policing in the producer-fan relationship. While studies have celebrated the blurring of boundaries between producers and fans, in this paper, I want to suggest and explore the policing that fans place on the producer-fan relationship.
The recent crowdfunding success of the Veronica Mars movie via Kickstarter has incited a lot of debates. These debates have questioned if the so-called cynical and calculative move by Warner Brothers and Rob Thomas, the show's creator, was exploiting fans' love for the show; or if its success marks a shift in the media entertainment industry as well as signalling new ways of mobilising participatory fandom, particularly through the utilisation of social media. While these debates are certainly important, questions also need to be posed about what this means for the fans, if donating to the project - in effect, investing in the production of the film – changes their relationship with media producers and alters their view of the media property's ownership.
In this paper, I propose to explore fans’ reasons for donating to the Veronica Mars movie campaign and if this, in their view, somehow changes their relationship to Rob Thomas and what this ultimately may mean for other projects and other media producers which seek to mobilise fans to fund their projects via sites like Kickstarter. Will this easy connection to fans, facilitated by social media networks, open fans up to exploitation, or is this be a gradual evolution of fandom and fans’ relationship with media producers?"
In his now seminal text on anti-fans, Jonathan Gray (2003) argues that an array of paratexts such as spoilers and media buzz inform anti-fans’ opinions and readings of the texts they dislike, whereby a closer look at anti-fandom would uncover audience expectations of quality and value in a media text. Anne Gilbert (2012) suggests that anti-fans’ ongoing engagement with a hated text is a type of performance, particularly when the mockery and criticism is performed via social media networks, making it a communal activity.
The Buffy vs Edward video mash-up, in this case, indicates an anti-fandom reading of Twilight via Buffy. This paper intends to explore and locate anti-fandom performance in extratextual mash-ups such as the Buffy vs. Edward video, where the anti-fandom sentiment is performed and read through another text which shares certain genre qualities but is culturally more valued.
Several scholars have also noted that fan studies’ deep-seated embeddedness within the context of cultural studies and the notion of the active, resistant audience has several consequences. Among which, fan studies consistently neglects the commercial possibilities of fan communities and fans’ collaborations with media producers. However, I would also like to propose that, despite the seemingly positive acceptance of fans (and fan studies), there is still a level of shame surrounding the oft-taken-for-granted tenets of being a fan: that of pleasure. In short, the ‘useful’, activist fan is often (internally, among fans) posited against the ‘squeeing’, emotional fangirl; with a recent American television show, Cult, purporting the dangers of the fan who becomes too emotionally-involved with a fictional text within a text.
In this paper, I propose to examine the notion of shame, pleasure and the limits of (fan) representation in the current context of fan cultural studies.
Some scholars have argued that the labour that fans provide for the media industry is exploitative and stifling fan creativity. However, the fans who participate in these collaborations or run the fan sites may not necessarily consider their work as exploitative, but rather as a service to fandom itself for providing a repository for knowledge and information, sometimes gathered first-hand from their relationships to the media industry. In this paper, through examining the roles played by XFilesNews.com and Sherlockology, I want to examine how fan labour while seemingly exploitative to some, is often considered an act of gift-giving for those involved in the fandom that serve to not only build social relationships, but also enable these fans to accumulate social and cultural capital, both within their fandom and with the media industry.
""
Zweerink and Gatson (2005) observed that the formation of fan communities online (particularly in Buffy forums such as The Bronze) also brought with it the class structure that Whedon sought to satirise in his shows. As communities like The Bronze became more popular, cliques among the community members began to form. Other scholars (Fiske, 1992; Williamson, 2005) have similarly suggested that fans often engage in elitist distinctions between themselves and other fans. But do fans go beyond just creating these fannish distinctions within fan communities?
When the cast of Dollhouse was announced, numerous fan discussions in Whedon-centred sites such as Whedonesque were concentrated on whether the actors - most of them new talents in collaborating with Whedon - were ‘worthy’ of the auteur. In their discussions, fans reflect on the actors’ past works, their methods and approach to acting in comparison to those whom Whedon frequently collaborated with, positioning themselves against some of the new actors, whom they view as potential ‘threats’ to the quality of a Joss Whedon product. In this paper, I would like to suggest that the social hierarchy that exists within fandom extends (in the case of the Whedonverse) to the actors as well. Fans also draw very clear distinctions around actors who have collaborated with Whedon, and those who have yet to prove themselves ‘worthy’.
However, globalisation and the growth of media technologies consistently suggest that fandom is becoming transcultural, with East Asian popular culture penetrating the consciousness of Western audiences. In this paper, I want to begin to examine if the seemingly divergent fan cultural theories intersect at any point, and if, as such, fan cultural theory a la Jenkins, Hills and the like can be applied into the context of East Asian pop culture fandom. Are there limitations to both schools of thought when applied to East Asian migrant communities in the West who become fans of East Asian pop culture but remain “outsiders” due to language or proximity constrains?
"
THE FAN STUDIES NETWORK 2015 CONFERENCE 27-28th June 2015
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Keynote Speakers:
Dr Lincoln Geraghty (University of Portsmouth, UK)
Dr Suzanne Scott (The University of Texas at Austin, USA)
For three years the Fan Studies Network has provided an enthusiastic and welcoming space for academics in all stages of study interested in fans and fandom to connect, share resources, and develop their research ideas. Following the success of our first two conferences, we are delighted to announce our third annual event: FSN2015, taking place over two days at the University of East Anglia, 27-28th June 2015.
FSN2015 will feature two keynote speakers, both of whom have made a dynamic impact on the field. The first will be Dr Lincoln Geraghty, author of Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe (IB Tauris, 2007), American Science Fiction Film and Television (Berg, 2009) and Cult Collectors: Nostalgia, Fandom and Collecting Popular Culture (Routledge, 2014). The second keynote will be Dr Suzanne Scott, who, in addition to her published work on fandom in journals such as New Media & Society and Transformative Works and Cultures, is currently working on her forthcoming book Revenge of the Fanboy: Convergence Culture and the Politics of Incorporation.
We invite abstracts of no more than 300 words for individual 20 minute papers that address any aspect of fandom or fan studies. We also welcome collated submissions for pre-constituted panels. We encourage new members, in all stages of study, to the network and welcome proposals for presentations on, but not limited to, the following possible topics:
- Activism and fandom
- Pedagogy and Fandom
- Non technological practices in fandom
- Fan conventions
- Fandom and conflict
- Fan labour - Non-Western fan cultures - Ethics and methodology in fan studies - Defining fandom - Anti-Fandom and Non-Fandom
- Fan use of social media platforms
- Fandom (and) controversies
- Transculture and fandom
- The future of fan studies
We also invite expressions of interest (100- 200 words) from anyone wishing to host a short session of ‘speed geeking’. This would involve each speaker chairing a short discussion on a relevant topic of their choosing, and then receiving valuable feedback, making it ideal for presenting in-progress or undeveloped ideas. If you have any questions about this format of presentation, please contact Richard McCulloch at [email protected].
Please send any enquires/abstracts to: [email protected] by SUNDAY 22RD MARCH.
You can find out more information on http://fanstudies.wordpress.com/ or talk about the event on Twitter using #FSN2015.
Conference Organisers:
Lucy Bennett and Tom Phillips (FSN chairs)
Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Richard McCulloch, Rebecca Williams (FSN board)