6/26/2023 0 Comments Textual poacher![]() On the undergraduate level, I would have taken the first approach but on the graduate level, I opted for the second - trying to map the evolution of a field of research centered around the study of fan communities and showing how it has spoken to a broader range of debates in media and cultural studies over the past two decades. A key choice I faced was between a course on fan culture, which would be centrally about what fans do and think, and a course in fan studies, which would map the emergence of and influence of a new academic field focused on the study of fandom and other forms of participatory culture. There are many ways you could conceptualize such a subject. Surprisingly, given how central the study of fans has been to the trajectory of my research from graduate school forward, this is the first time I have ever taught a full class around this topic. ![]() I am thus developing classes around key concepts in my own work which are allowing me to introduce myself and my thinking to this new community. I am in a very happy place right now with my teaching - starting over at USC is freeing me to form new kinds of classes which grow more from my own research interests rather than the institutional needs of sustaining an under-staffed program. Today, I am going to be teaching the first session of a graduate seminar on "Fandom, Participatory Culture, and Web 2.0," and so I wanted to share the syllabus with my readers here, given the level of unexpected interest I received when I posted my syllabi last fall for the Transmedia Storytelling and Entertainment and New Media Literacies classes. But here we are - once more into the breech. USC's semester starts, gulp, today, so my rhythms felt all wrong through late December and early January. I'm back at my desk after what was far too short a break! MIT gave us all of January off to focus on our own research as well as to participate in their Independent Activities Period.
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