Nicolas Pethes: “Both making and listening to music are shaped by what each side hopes for, projects onto, and receives from the other. These expectations influence not only how audiences respond to songs...but also how artists create them in the first place." www.rorotoko.com/micro-interv...

My dislike of summer is socially constructed. Natural Calendar 1. Spring: birth 2. Summer: life 3. Fall: maturity 4. Winter: dormancy Academic Calendar 1. Fall: birth 2. Winter: life 3. Spring: maturity 4. Summer: dormancy #AcademicSky

Philip Glass' newest symphony, an homage to Abraham Lincoln, was supposed to premiere at the Kennedy Center — until it didn't. And then, the Boston Symphony Orchestra stepped in. n.pr/4y1iOmF

Encounters with objects at the amazingly eclectic V&A East Storehouse. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/a...

I am really grateful to have had the chance, this summer, to slow down, reflect, and learn from an amazing group of fellow faculty at different stages of their teaching careers. #AcademicSky #Pedagogy #RISD www.risd.edu/news/stories...

I saw *Black Swan* at the American Repertory Theater today. Amazing dancing, choreography, lighting; the music was mostly for mood. Interesting to see a creepy Aronofsky film become a weirdly-sinister version of 42nd Street. #BlackSwan #A.R.T. #musicals

New issue of Fandom | Cultures | Research is out now ⬇️⬇️⬇️ #FanStudies journals.uni-marburg.de/fcr/issue/vi...

Enjoying the topical range in the latest issue of Reception, including essays on "unhinged women lit.,” the popular reception of Maxwell Anderson’s Mary of Scotland in the 1930s, "literary scrap" on Tumblr, and the "leather suit of Christ" in medieval performance. #Reception #ReceptionStudySociety

Just finished When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy, by @berondam.bsky.social. Such a powerful book. The trees remember.

Stephan Michael Schröder’s “Possessing Actors and Actresses: Theater Stars and Early Film Stars on Postcards in Comparison” analyzes why fans collected postcard images of stars, across late-19th-C. theater and early-20th-C. cinema. #FanStudies #FandomHistory link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Agata Łuksza’s “Celebrities and Confectionary: The Edible History of Theater Fandom” argues that desserts and delicacies functioned as affective intermediaries for late 19th-C. theater fans, fusing memory, desire, and admiration. #FanStudies #TheaterFandom link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

In my annual Fan Cultures seminar, the final assignment is a case study. Students’ recent topics ranged across media, language, and culture, including fandoms for Honkai Impact 3rd, Taskmaster, Cluely, LCK, Bato, Lypsinka, and American Girl. Wonderful reading—and mutual learning. #FanStudies

Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness is not for everyone, but this one-sentence WWI novel by Daniel Kraus is an astounding piece of writing: violent, surreal, and moving. It also made me think of the film 1917. What is with WWI and the use of a single shot/sentence? #AngelDown #booksky

The relational drama of Springsteen fandom, articulated with sympathy and intelligence. Highly recommended. #FanStudies #Fandom #Springsteen www.bloomsbury.com/us/springste...

Nice piece by Barack Obama on “The Music That Made Us” in the current Rolling Stone (June 2026): “Great music has a way of helping us feel seen; more than that, it helps us see others, enlarging our hearts and our moral imaginations.”

In “’Long Live Mrs. Heiberg!’: Fame, Theater and the Birth of Fan Culture in Nineteenth-Century Copenhagen,” Clement Räthel explores fannish audience reactions to Danish theater celebrity Johanne Luise Heiberg. #FanStudies #FandomHistory link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

I just finished leading a 3-day faculty institute on “Difficult Conversations and Collaborative Learning.” Having extended conversations with colleagues about teaching was truly inspiring. However, I now also may need a couple of quiet days of jigsaw puzzling and watching cricket.

In “‘His God is Rossini’: Enthusiastic Opera Audiences in Restoration Paris,” Lindsay A. Weaver discusses the dilettanti at the Théâtre-Italien in the 1820s as a recognizable community of fans before the 20th century. #FanStudies #FandomHistory link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

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

“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...

Abstract for “‘A Dear Child with Many Names’: An Introduction to Expanding the History of Fandom”, by Daniel Cavicchi and Stephan Michael Schröder. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

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

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

See you at the Festival. #NewportJazz2026

Fan graffiti.

Resonance (UC Press) is looking for humanities research across the following topics: Sound in Political Crisis, Sound and Social Justice, Experiments in Sound, Sound Archives and Preservation, and we're convening a permanent series that'll examine "Film and Cinema Sound" this Fall. Please circulate!

Intellect is pleased to present Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1! Including ‘The scapegoating of the Angry Video Game Nerd' by Matt Foy Fan Studies Network North America Fan Studies Network SCMS Fan and Audience Studies SIG https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/jfs/browse

Annual posting of one of my favorite poems. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44728/...

Coming soon: *Admirers, Fanciers and Devotees: The Early History of Fandom*, a new anthology I edited with Stephan Michael Schröder (and the latest release in J.B. Metzler's Szene & Horizont Series). Initial information up now at: link.springer.com/book/9783662...

Today's fandom antedatings for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction: "faan", from 1953 to 1951; and "faanish", from 1959 to 1951. Both typically denoting a non-serious fan. sfdictionary.com/view/2290/faan sfdictionary.com/view/2359/fa...

I have taught, now, for 35 years. And yet each class still involves weeks mulling how best to approach a topic; hours prepping; spontaneous in-class pivots; mistakes, doubt, and recommitment; and wonder at students' insights. Teaching is such a messy & profound art, done among people, always anew.

The CFP for the always fantastic @fsnnorthamerica.bsky.social annual conference is now live Deadline: 8 May 2026 #FanStudies docs.google.com/document/u/0...

"Origin of Term ‘Fan' Is Mooted Question." San Francisco Call, Volume 110, Number 176 (23 November 1911): 10.

CFP: Sounding Things: Props, Material Culture, and Accessories in Popular Music Abstract Deadline: May 1, 2026 Abstract Length: 350–500 words Editors: Kate Galloway, Paxton Haven, and Mike Levine Full call here: drive.google.com/file/d/1mfyd...

Spent the entire day moving snow. Time for tea and Tylenol. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/u...

The Largest Historical Dictionary of English Slang Now Free Online: Covers 500 Years of the “Vulgar Tongue”

Thoreau fandom. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/r...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

How do historians tell a story of a fascinating person who left few personal papers? In a new Commonplace piece, David Stowe explains how/why his historical novel might be the right approach for the life of William Billings, the first significant US composer. 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/writ...

Highly recommend Unabridged, by @stefanfatsis.bsky.social. Especially in an environment of unchecked doublespeak, it’s good to read about people who have devoted their lives to the principle that words and their definitions matter.

D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt advocate for “defeating the forces that frack human beings” with Simone Weil’s "theory of attention rooted in love, care and commitment, an ethics of attention that cannot be sold or stolen.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...

New issue of Fandom | Cultures | Research ⬇️⬇️⬇️ #FanStudies journals.uni-marburg.de/fcr

Are you finalizing a syllabus and looking for short, accessible articles to assign on some aspect of American history before 1900? Did you know that Commonplace has a subject tags page that allows you to easily browse our 25 year back catalog? Check it out here: 🗃️ commonplace.online/article/subj...

All the lists are published, and New Year's Day is the perfect time to walk back through our 2025 Year In Review to discover which albums you may have missed over the last three hundred and some-odd days. Happy New Year!

Excellent essay, by @bilgeebiri.bsky.social, on Terrence Malick’s enduring influence. yalereview.org/article/bilg...

Joseph Epstein echoes my (apparently antiquated) love for the printed dictionary in “You Can Look It Up: A Threnody for the Dictionary.” www.commentary.org/articles/jos...

Glued to the news. It is awful to see Providence’s East side become an active crime scene. I’m saddened by the casualties and, with the shooter still at large, worried about Brown University colleagues and students still sheltering in place.

Thinking about how much time I spent as a child watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968), Sesame Street (1969), and The Electric Company (1971). Mr. Rogers was most important for me, although Sesame’s groovy "Pinball Counting Song” always got my full attention. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJ-...