Part of the way forward is for fan scholars to acknowledge that the ‘go-to’ theoretical frameworks of the field when conceptualizing fan identity and its operations actively encourage the erasure of non-white fans while highlighting issues of gender and sexuality. This is, of course, a fallacious division because these categories are never not constituted in relation to race. I argue that because fan studies does not consider whiteness as a racialized identity with specific effects, its operations on fandom structures can be presented as normative.
Rukmini Pande in a conversation on the state of fandom studies.
Henry Jenkins is hosting a series of these conversations on his blog at the moment and we will almost certainly be bringing you more of this content. It’s exciting to be able to look in on leading scholars in the field publicly talking about where we’re at and where we’re going.