The Fan Studies Network

This conference offers a serious opportunity to bring together academics, enthusiasts, creative practitioners and popular writers in a shared discussion about the cultural legacy of Sherlock Holmes. The Strand Magazine and the Sherlock Holmes stories contribute one of the most enduring paradigms for the production and consumption of popular culture in the twentieth- and the twenty-first centuries. The stories precipitated a burgeoning fan culture including various kinds of participation, wiki and crowd-sourcing, fan-fiction, virtual realities and role-play gaming. All of these had existed before but they were solidified, magnified and united by Sherlockians and Holmesians in entirely new ways and on scales never seen before. All popular culture phenomena that followed (from Lord of the Rings to Twilight via Star Trek) shared its viral pattern. This conference aims to unpick the historical intricacies of Holmesian fandom as well as offering a wide variety of perspectives upon its newest manifestations. This conference invites adaptors of and scholars on Holmes, late-Victorian writing, and popular culture internationally to contribute to this scholarly conversation. Our aims are to celebrate Conan Doyle’s achievement, to explore the reasons behind Holmes’ enduring popularity across different cultures and geographical spaces, and to investigate new directions in Holmes’ afterlife. This conference will precede Holmes’ 160th birthday in 2014 and launch a new volume of essays on Holmes co-edited by Dr. Jonathan Cranfield and Tom Ue, and form part of the larger celebrations in London and internationally. Location:
Senate House, London

Dates: 21 and 22 June 2013

Possible Topics:
Holmes and Detective Fiction
Holmes and Science
Becoming Holmes
Holmes and Gender
Holmes’ Costume
Holmes in Retirement
Holmes and His Boswell
Holmes and Steampunk
Holmes and Philosophy
Holmes and Moriarty
Holmes computer games
Holmes/Victoriana in the graphic novel (From Hell, Grandeville…)
Post-2000 film and television adaptation
Fan letters addressed to Holmes

Submit proposals of 350 words and biographies of 150 words by email to BOTH Jonathan at J.L.Cranfield@ljmu.ac.uk AND Tom at ue_tom@hotmail.com by 15 January 2013.

Call for papers

Severn Pop Network inaugural conference

The small economies of the ‘new’ music industry
University of Bristol

25th March 2013

The music industry is in a well-publicised state of upheaval. The emergence of digital reproductive technologies (such as CD burners and MP3s), of digital distribution and consumption technologies (such as the iPod, iTunes and Spotify), and of new social media (such as Myspace and Facebook) have radically disturbed established systems of production and consumption. The benefits of these changes have fallen unequally and most cultural commentary has focused on the problems caused to the global record industry. However, one of the distinctive features of the music industry is the continuity between localised ‘para-industrial acts’ and mainstream commercial practices. The importance of geographic and genre-based scenes means that small music economies have a greater significance for the structural organisation of the music industry than in other cultural industries: ‘in the music industry… the small is as significant as the big’ (Frith, 2000).

This conference focuses on the small-scale commercial practices developing in the ‘new’ music industry, paying particular attention to local economies and ‘direct’ interactions between musicians and fans. While research exists on how declining record sales may be affecting the major industry, how (if at all) are they impacting musicians at a more local level? Is declining record income relevant or is it being offset by falling costs of recording and distribution? Are the disintermediating technologies of the internet offering greater opportunities for ‘monetising’ musical activities? How are musicians, managers, labels, promoters and fans adapting to the new circumstances? How are the relationships between these key players changing?

We invite papers on any aspect of the ‘new’ music industry outside/beyond the major-dominated mainstream. Possible topics include:

Fan funding and crowd sourcing (such as Amanda Palmer’s Kickstarter campaign)
The ‘monetisation’ of fan engagement
Initiatives to create local economy/scene infrastructure
The effects of changing regulation (including copyright) on local music economies
The emergence of new cultural/economic intermediaries (such as Bandcamp)
The role of recorded music in local music economies
New business models (such as Netlabels)
Promotion in the online music industry.

Please send proposals, of up to 250 words, for 20 minute papers, and a short author bio, to SevernPop@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is 18 January and authors will be notified of the outcome by 30 January.

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The Severn Pop Network is an academic network of scholars interested in popular music and based at several universities spanning the river Severn. We meet approximately four times each year for paper presentations and reading group discussions. If you would like to get involved, please contact SevernPop@gmail.com