In “The Search for a Deep Time of Theatrical Fandom,” Peter W. Marx explores the historical implications of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theater’s recirculation of older forms adoration and veneration. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #FanStudies #FandomHistory

Deadline extended to June 1 2026 🚨

Should anyone really try to bring A Nightmare on Elm Street back? Or should we just leave it alone once and for all and let Freddy rest? #FreddyKrueger #ANightmareOnElmStreet

"The prevalence of AI use on college campuses, particularly at 'elite' universities, is a cancer on our culture ... it will grotesquely disfigure, if not destroy, the university as an institute in every way that it is imagined" The Great Zombification open.substack.com/pub/thenewcr...

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Belfekih, C., & Lachheb, M. (2026). Between stands and margins: Gendered hierarchies and intra-gender dynamics in Tunisian female football fandom. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 0(0). #FanStudies journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

“Naming Historical Fans” summarizes my research on the range of English-language terms used to describe an avid person before “fan” emerged in the 1880s. #FanStudies #FandomHistory link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

🐺📚 My short upcoming book Translating The Witcher: Publishing Fantasy Fiction in Europe (@universitypress.cambridge.org, series "Elements in Publishing and Book Culture") will be available online May 14, and as paperback in June! share.google/gbKrSC06L7Cv...

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

New article in Review of International Studies ‘If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad’: Liberal enjoyment and complicity in popular culture. Zoë Jay #FanStudies www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New study finds that people who prefer excitement- and suspense-heavy entertainment (like thrillers, crime, horror, and mystery) were more likely to believe conspiracy theories, particularly those who are more easily drawn into stories and enjoy suspense. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Request for information: I had a request from a prospective PhD student who is looking to work on fanfiction and AI writing. Do you know anyone who might be in a position to receive a proposal about this? (I cannot supervise PhD students myself.) Thanks. @fanstudies.bsky.social #FanStudies

Are you a researcher based in the USA 🇺🇸 or Canada 🇨🇦 interested in pursuing curiosity-driven research in Europe? Join the ERC and Euraxess for a webinar exploring ERC funding opportunities. 👇️ 📅 20 May 2026 🕚 11:30 AM ET | 8:30 AM PT 💻 Online Find out more and register:

Dr Bethan Jones aka @memorieschild.bsky.social is a Research Associate at Cardiff University, exploring how fans build communities, among other things. She literally wrote the book on The X-Files, and we're so excited to have her with us to examine the enduring cultural impact of Mulder & Scully. 🧵⬇️

We're baaaaaaack! The fourth annual Haunted Futures Conference will take place on September 29th and 30th @ucc.ie. This year we propose to explore the theme of 'Spaces in Crisis' and will be accepting abstracts until July 24th

I have a book coming out soon! It’s fan studies / literary studies and about the complex relationships between the internet and twenty-first century fiction and fanfiction. Please join me at the online launch: Wednesday 3 June, 7pm UTC: www.facebook.com/events/16107...

Last call for nominations for member-at-large or grad rep for the SIG executive committee. Please send your name, affiliation, and brief statement to our Gmail by Friday evening (your time zone).

Twenty years ago, The West Wing came to an end, making today an ideal moment to revisit Empire's definitive guide. Gathering all the essential players to relive the drama of one of television's most influential and imporant shows. Read more: www.empireonline.com/west-wing/

Hybrid Lecture: Transgender Bodies in Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece and Its Fandom Nemo Madeleine Sugimoto Martin Wednesday, 20 May 2026 15:30–17:00 Kanagawa University, Minatomirai Campus, Yokohama Details: human.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/kenkyu/sympo...

Nottingham job cuts ‘pose systemic risks to research’, union warns. Research-intensive university told it risks “intellectual stagnation” as 2,700 staff put at risk of redundancy. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

SUNDAY! SUNDAY!! SUNDAY!!! this is your reminder that the deadline to submit to present at the 2026 FSNNA #FanStudies conference is THIS SUNDAY (May 17)!

"There are currently only three fanfics on the Archive of Our Own written in Swahili." In our latest, @soila.bsky.social writes about the dominance of English in fandom and especially fic, including the perspectives of fellow fans in Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi. Read or listen to an audio version:

New article in International Journal of Cultural Studies ⬇️⬇️⬇️ The AI-mediated gamification of affective labor: The reconfiguration of participatory fan production in human–community–machine interactions Jie Cui #FanStudies journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

My related rant (that cites DC):

NEW: Graduating humanities students were told that AI is the “next industrial revolution” in a speech. It was met with thousands of booing graduates.

Jason lives!

Elections 2026: Plaid Cymru win lays groundwork for HE review. Electoral shifts across UK intensify pressure on universities to strengthen political and local engagement. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...

Behaviour Interactive (Dead by Daylight) and PHI Studio (Space Explorers: The Infinite, Horizon of Khufu, Life Chronicles) announce the launch of Blade Runner, an immersive experience in North America in 2027 www.newswire.ca/news-releases...

NEW BOOK: Admirers, Fanciers and Devotees: The Early History of Fandom. E-book version released today: link.springer.com/book/10.1007... #FanStudies #FandomHistory

The program for the Mechademia 2026 conference is now available. We look forward to seeing you in Singapore soon! www.mechademia.net/2026/05/07/m...

This week on Wonkhe: Against a backdrop of the industrial strategy and UKRI’s new approach, Michael Salmon argues that perennial debates over Wales’ research system will come into sharpened focus under the next government

Jeff Buckley’s posthumous live album ‘Mystery White Boy’ was released 26 years ago on May 9, 2000 | Listen to the album here: album.ink/JBuckleyMWB

The 2019 Addams Family movie deserves another shot

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Baumgartner, S. E., & Kühne, R. (2026). Why Do Users Stop Pleasurable Media Experiences? The Dynamics of Media Experiences and Their Impact on Media Disengagement. Communication Research, 53(4), 455-477. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Been sitting on this news for a little while but I'm so excited to be talking on a panel on "Fandom Fluency" at the upcoming Popcultr Marketing Summit which runs alongside the MCM Comic Con in London. #FanStudies popcultr.events/may26

Newest issue (22.1) of Participations is out! :) Featuring articles on female audiences of true crime, Zimbabwean sungura music, news and civic participation, multilingual audiences in Solapur, Italian film culture, German public service media platforms & mixed-reality art! www.participations.org

Tickets for an event I'm helping to run with the British Film Institute have just gone live, so I'm here to share! Want to watch and learn more about 20 years of asexual representation on British screens, and discuss potentials for archiving asexuality? Book at: whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/defau...

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Benson-Allott, C. (2026). One Fan’s Shame: On Living With Loving Below Deck. Television & New Media, 0(0). #FanStudies journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Now available on the New Books Network: Jonathan Gray and Daphne Gershon on their recent edited collection, Reading Media: How to Do Textual Analysis (New York University Press, 2026). newbooksnetwork.com/reading-media

Call For Papers 🚨 “(Un)Just Joking? On the Global Dimensions of Right-Wing Humor" Special issue of the Journal of Right-Wing Studies Call for Proposals Submission deadline: October 1, 2026 jrws.berkeley.edu/unjust-jokin...

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Fortant, E. (2026). Building intimacy with fans: A comparative study of self-presentation strategies of crowdfunded musicians on Patreon and YouTube. New Media & Society, 0(0). #FanStudies journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Have been enjoying @dazeddigital.com coverage of the #DevPatel lookalike competition over on Instagram! I'll be talking more about the actor's fan appeal at @angliaruskin.bsky.social Internet Boyfriends symposium later this month! Details here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/internet-b... #fanstudies

ANNOUNCING: volume 2.1 of the International Journal of Disney Studies! MEET our excellent new editor, INDULGE in intersections with public speaking, CHERISH old fairy tales, KINDLE you knowledge of female violence, ENJOY the wild frontier, YEARN for more here: intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...

I talk about the American frontier in this issue! Check it out!

In this special interview episode, Erin sits down with Fansplaining's editor-in-chief, Elizabeth Minkel, and editor and writer Lin Codega, to discuss the relaunch of @fansplaining.bsky.social as an independent, subscriber-supported journalistic publication. #Fandom #Podcast #Fansplaining #Interview

Our favorite restaurant is closing. Universal Orlando Resort delivered the sad news, announcing that Mythos Restaurant will close next year. Story at www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/202605...