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
Much of the debate surrounding “Rebel Girl” centers on the question of whether or not someone can be a political fan in the same way one can be a sports fan or media fan. In an essay on youth activism,
Tumblrpocalypse Special, Part 13
Our final scholarly reaction to the Tumblrpocalypse comes from Allison McCracken, DePaul University. Allison is a co-editor of A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures (forthcoming 2019). I first went on Tumblr in 2010, because I was a Glee fan. As
Soon after the announcement [that Young Justice and Green Lantern: the Animated Series would be canceled], Cartoon Network and DC Comics released a joint statement that thanked fans for expressing their love for DC Nation and stated that new episodes
The defining example of fan activism to renew a show was the letter-writing campaign to pressure NBC into renewing Star Trek in the 1960s, which provided a sort of model for future similar campaigns (Jenkins 2011). Since then, fans have
Over the course of three seasons, Sleepy Hollow’s dedicated fan base used social media to launch an intersectional critique and urge change in the industry. Their efforts involved writing fan fiction, calling out stereotypical representations, and boycotting the show. While
New issue of Transformative Works and Cultures!
Volume 26 of Transformative Works and Cultures is out. This is a special issue on social TV fandom and the media industries that was edited by Myles McNutt. On the article pages, click through on the “HTML” link next to
Special issue CFP: Fandom and Politics (1/1/19; 6/15/20)
transformativeworksandcultures: We have entered an historical moment in which political communication is filled with fandom. Grassroots fan communities mobilize to influence elections. Political candidates perform fandom on the campaign trail. And of course, rallies on both sides of the aisle
The history of the Star Trek fandom has been largely defined by its instances of fan mobilization. While the fandom can be said to have come into existence in 1966 with the premier of the first episode of Star Trek,
Imaginactivism is—perhaps self-evidently—a compound word made up of Imagine and Activism, but intended to connote the process relationship between imagining and acting to make change in the world. The coinage is intended to signal a positive and effective relationship between