Not the sort of thing I'd usually write, but feels like things are bubbling over. On gatekeeping and barriers to my work in cultural #representation. #chinese #culture #author #diversity snowpavilion.co.uk/gatekeeping-...

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

#NowReading2026 THE END OF COOL JAPAN: ETHICAL, LEGAL, & CULTURAL CHALLENGES TO JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE edited by Mark McLelland via @routledgebooks.bsky.social imbibed at CremaHop #Akasaka #赤坂 #Books #IceCream 📚 💙 #BookSky #JapanSky

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...

Probable ADHD that I'm too old to have diagnosed (according to the doctor's office I contacted before I left the US) and which I couldn't take medication for here anyway continues to beat my ass.

How can you locate digital images that can be used freely for your teaching or publication? NCC’s Image Use Protocol group has a help list of libraries, museums, and other archives that house Japan-related visual images! 🖼️🗾 Check out more at: guides.nccjapan.org/imageuse/fin...

A few more days before our event featuring our plenary speakers Wikanda Promkhuntong, Anthony Fung and @acafanmom.bsky.social #FanStudies #TransculturalFandoms

Interesting University of Tsukuba study finds that frequently watching sports on TV reduces the risk of depression by 30% among the elderly. Article highlights an intensive care nursing home in Ibaraki Pref. that's partnered with local clubs, signed up for DAZN and regularly holds watch parties.

Feels like they're leaving out a very important detail upon the landing...

Wasn’t going to post more food, but the walnut butter spread they have for these is sinfully good. At JS Foodies in Tennoji Mio.

Slightly different understanding of “cottage cheese”

TEA’s the season hahahahaha… ha.

There are over 120 issues of the Japanese journal dedicated to the campaign against licensed prostitution 廓清 1911-1922 on Internet Archive for reading and download. archive.org/search?query...

Summer term starts tomorrow. I am not ready.

CFP: The Legacy of Norman Bates: Essays on the Psycho Franchise call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/05/...

Tis the season!

Managed to get my trash out this morning. Counting it as a win.

Was in the countryside over the weekend and walked away with a few pretty pictures...

AI is the lynchpin of the whole political project. It’s the container for the parallel governance they have promised each other. I truly think that they are surprised that people don’t like it…and that they can’t yet wholesale punish everyone for not liking them.

People keep asking me what I'm working on right now. I should probably start, I dunno, working on something. (Theoretically I'm working on a book, and I have made a bit of progress, but it's a historical study and people seem to be wanting something more ... contemporary)

Been a while since I’ve gone to Super Potato in DenDen Town. Famous as it is, it’s more or less a tourist trap. I just like to walk around and see how much the stores in the area are rinsing foreign tourists. ¥43,780 for an unboxed GameBoy.

Feel like I'm starting to come back online after a multi-year shutdown... don't know if anyone is still around to care, but it's a nice feeling regardless.

NEVER FORGET www.smh.com.au/world/north-...

With students across the US reacting strongly to commencement speeches about AI this graduation season, it feels like the right moment to reshare an essay I wrote on AI pedagogy. www.dangnguyen.digital/post/when-th...

keep going and ban the whole bible you can do it texas tech

If you want to see what most “professors” make.

Free shipping still available on Bookshop through the end of this weekend!

Interesting article on the trend of absolutely massive coffee beverages in Korea www.chosun.com/english/nati...

So excited to get a copy of @sayakachatani.bsky.social (with Kumhee Cho)'s new book. In sheer awe of the amazing research, incl. more than 200 interviews with members of the Zainichi/Chongryon community. I'll be moderating a book talk in June, so please join! mjha.org/event-6602790

Here's my semi-annual list of fan events in the Tokyo area and beyond covering March to August. (The full document is 8 pages long.) drive.google.com/file/d/1t1b7...

Moving across personal narratives and scholarly reflection, this dialogue situates fandom as a contact zone shaped by asymmetrical power relations, affective attachments, and performative negotiations of identity. Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367... @acafanmom.bsky.social

are there any tech and/or culture journalists that are interested in the vtubing and virtual idol space that are located in LA? if so please dm or email me. would love to get in touch concerning an upcoming event.

I'm available for indexing academic volumes. Areas of specialization include fan studies, media studies, gender studies, visual culture, art history. DM if interested! Please share if you know someone who may need their monograph or edited collection indexed!

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

Lately, my greatest delight is coming across unpopped bubble wrap and just sitting and popping it, bubble by bubble. Sums up my state of mind pretty well, tbh.

I want trans kids. I want to live in a world absolutely brimming with happy, thriving, safe trans kids. I will fight for that world with everything I have. And I hope that I am helping to build it, playing some small role in manifesting the world where no one else has to live with this kind of fear.

The application deadline for the 2026 Japan-America Student Conference is in 10 days. (I guess that means it will soon be 25 years since I attended the conference.) I encourage anyone at a US college or university to check it out. iscdc.org/jasc

アメリカ歴史学会の年次総会に参加される方は、JPPのオペレーション・リーダー、ポーラ・R・カーティスとの面談をぜひご検討ください。🗓️ 期限まで残り三週間となりましたので、面談を希望される方は、2026年1月5日までにご連絡ください！

Ack, I should have spelled it out. Let's try this again... The latest issue (52) of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social has been published! 🥳 nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/is... Read more about the individual articles below 👇

Introduce yourself with five concerts you've seen. Billy Joel (1987) Leslie Cheung (1997) Hotei Tomoyasu (2003) (literally that's it)(ironically, all in Japan)

And of course when they are finally given the scriptures, they've been redacted.

My forthcoming book on K-pop fandom looks at how parasocial relationships in K-pop today can be viewed as asymmetrical relationships -- never entirely one-way, but in many cases, two-way, asymmetric-yet-mutual attachments 💞

Slight tangent, but Godzilla’s roots connect to Ainu culture alongside Japan's nuclear history - something rarely mentioned. Composer Akira Ifukube, from Kushiro, spent lots of time around Ainu. Learned this when visiting Akan Ainu woodcarver Ushijima Takahiro who showed me a wood Godzilla he made.

This is such a great article by Eva Cheuk-Yin Li & Ka-Wei Pang about a specific incident in fandom in which discourse around AI deepfakes was weaponised by fans. Beyond the incident itself, it offers a thoughtful example of how to engage with fandom incidents with care and respect.

Aca-Alien-Colleagues I’m putting together a Companion on the Alien Franchise and have some gaps on abstracts about Alien Earth (all angles welcome), Romulus, and the crossover/influence with the Predator franchise. If of interest contact me at: [email protected]

I feel like it's time to grow a backbone and have a little faith in myself. I'm really tired of debilitating self-doubt, especially when there's no reason for it.

Lost my research mojo during the height of COVID, and I'm still trying to get it back ... resulting in a kind of personally profound loss of my sense of self.

New book ⬇️⬇️⬇️ The Routledge Handbook of Fan Video and Digital Authorship Edited By Louisa Ellen Stein, Samantha Close #FanStudies www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

Please join us this Friday at 10am ET for a conversation between Rebecca Wanzo and @alfredmartin.bsky.social on his groundbreaking new book, Fandom For Us, By Us. Follow the link below to register!

My book Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989, comes out in October! And it's eligible for a 25% discount in Barnes & Noble's preorder sale. The first printing paperback includes 12 pages of full color images! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mangas-fir...