The Fan Studies Network

SPECIAL ISSUE ON ETHICS IN FAN STUDIES CALL FOR PAPERS

In November 2014 an article by Adrienne Evans and Mafalda Stasi appeared in Participations calling for us as a field to consider whether a unified methodology is necessary or desirable for the field. In April 2015 the conversation at the Journal of Fandom Studies roundtable during the annual Popular Culture Association conference quickly turned to the dual (and perhaps inextricably related) topics of methodology and ethics in fan studies.

This month that conversation will continue at the Fan Studies Network 2015 conference during a workshop on ethics.  As the description of that workshop suggests, there are several questions we have all been grappling with for quite some time, questions that have become perhaps more pressing in the light of increasing use of social media by fans and increasing attention from the media on fan activities.  The four questions posed during this workshop: “what should ethics in fan studies look like, do we need a standard ethical framework; how should fan studies scholars approach ethical issues in their work; what does the future of the field hold” all raise discreet questions of their own.

This special issue of The Journal of Fandom Studies aims to examine these and related questions.  How do we define privacy? Do we need to re-examine the notion of the aca-fan? Where are our boundaries as researchers? As fans? When do we need IRB approval? To what extent might our desire to “protect” fans actually being doing a disservice to the fans and the field?

Please submit proposals for papers (250-400 words) by August 15, 2015 to journaloffandomstudies@gmail.com.

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