Since its launch in 2008, Archive of Our Own (AO3) has grown to amass nearly 750,000 users and over 2 million individual fan fiction works.2 Its code is open source, and the archive has been designed, coded, and maintained nearly
On fan culture and activism…
Fan culture offers a history of appropriation and critical engagement with pop culture that could inform broader activist strategies toward increased visibility and collective identity formation. Brough, Melissa M., and Sangita Shresthova. 2011. ‘Fandom Meets Activism: Rethinking Civic and Political
On the academic study of fan communities…
While academics should have the freedom to engage critically with cultural texts, including online fan texts, I would also point out that, unlike authors of traditionally published works (that is, works published through academic or commercial presses), fan writers are
On fanfiction’s beginnings…
“It may not be coincidental that the spectre of authorial intention, cast out with the rise of poststructuralism and postmodernism, coincides with fanfiction’s beginnings.” Hellekson, Karen, and Kristina Busse, eds. 2014. The Fan Fiction Studies Reader. Iowa City: University of
A Note on the Internet
“The Internet is a stage that allows all users to perform to other users, through text posts or images or videos or songs, through sharing playlists or liking others’ posts or publishing remixes or founding digital archives.” De Kosnik, Abigail.
Queerbaiting: Context, Context, Context!
“Queerbaiting is a historical situated term, assuming that we live in a time and place where queer representation is possible yet constantly denied. The same people that accuse producers of TV shows from the 21st century of queerbaiting, defend TV
“Online slash fan fiction spaces have real-life, real-world consequences for their participants, whether or not those participants identify as queer, because in these spaces, fans can question and defy prohibitions and policing on their own imaginations, identifications, and intimacies.” De
Congressional Fanfiction & Fic-As-Resistance
“… [S]ince the 2016 election, as American political engagement has boomed — the 2018 midterms had the highest voter turnout percentage for any midterm in 104 years — fan fiction scholars have noted a spike in stories featuring the U.S.
“Dysfandom”: Fandom as Resistance
“I refer to this concept of a fandom who is said to be behaving badly, that is, excessively, as dysfandom, attaching an inseparable Greek prefix to a Latinate word, one which, per Liddell and Scott, is capable of ‘destroying the good
Meet the Volunteer: Alex
I’m Alex, and I’m a fanhackers volunteer! I was first introduced to fandom roughly twelve years ago, and haven’t looked back since. As with many people, fandom has been an anchor during some of the most difficult times of my