I have signaled throughout the past year that I think the field of fandom studies is at a crossroads as three major anthologies appear which are mapping major new directions and introducing a new generation of scholars. These books are:
Paul Booth (ed.) A Companion to Fandom and Fan Studies
Melissa A. Click and Suzanne Scott (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom
Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington (eds.) Fandom: Identities and Communities in the Mediated World, Second Edition
In addition, we want to acknowledge Kristina Busse’s Framing Fan Fiction: Literary and Social Practices in Fan Fiction Communities, which assembles the essays of one of the key figures in the field in recent years.
In recognition of the transformative moment, I have assembled a series of exchanges with contributors to the three collections which will run for almost two months. I have hosted two large scale conversations here in the past -- one in 2007 focused around gender and fan studies, a second in 2011 focused on the aca-fan identity, and now, this one. Contributors to the three books were asked to contribute, with priority given to those who have not participated in the two previous exchanges. I created pairs of writers whose work explores similar themes to both offer overviews of their visions for the field and to engage with dialogue with each other. I will be showcasing two such exchanges per week. (See the schedule below).
I hope that this will offer a chance for all of us to get to know these (mostly) young scholars and their works better and to take some soundings of the state of fandom studies as a field. I believe doing so will provide a rich resource both for students around the world seeking to better understand fandom, as well as future generations, to identify work that speaks to their own needs and interests.
