The Fan Studies Network

Australian fans have access to a wide array of popular culture content from around the world, developing relationships with these products that are as rich as fans from other parts of the globe. Until recently access to media products is limited by temporal
and spatial distance from countries of origin. Yet, at the same time practices from diaspora communities to preserve cultural identity introduces a multitude of global media content to a wider Australian audience. Australian fans thus engage with a mixture
of ‘conventional’ and ‘niche’ media products that places them both within the margins and in the mainstream.  While there may be parallels between Australia and other nations with multicultural communities, the geographical location, history and cultural mix
of Australian society give rise to unique contexts shaping the consumption and practices of Australian fans.
 

We thus ask the question: What makes the Australian fan experience unique? What influence does geo-political location have on the consumption and appropriation of popular culture in the Australian context? What impact does Australian multicultural society
have on exposure and access to popular culture? What drives Australian fan interaction with global popular culture, and how does this interaction intersect with narratives of ‘Australian-ness’ in local and globalised contexts?

This book seeks to explore the specific and unique experience of being fans living and Australia.

We seek authors to contribute critical chapters for an edited volume to be submitted to University of Iowa Press. Topics include but are not limited to:

• Online fandom
• Offline fandom (including convention attendance, fan-celebrity interaction etc)
• Fan perceptions of celebrity brands/identities/public persona
• Fan fiction
• Cosplay culture
• Anime culture
• Manga culture
• Subcultures of fandom
• Transcultural fan practices (e.g. fan Subbers)
• World cinema fandom
• Cult cinema fandom
• Comic book fandom
• Distribution practices including Fast tracked television, Streaming services and Netflix
• Fandom and national identity

Please email 300 word abstracts and your
CV to both Celia Lam and Jackie Raphael by
August 31 2016. Proposals should be for original chapters that have not been previously published (including conference proceedings), and are not under consideration from other journals or edited collections.

Dr. Celia Lam is Lecturer in Media and Communications, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney (celia.lam@nd.edu.au)

Dr. Jackie Raphael is Lecturer in Design, School of Design and Art, Curtin University (J.Raphael@curtin.edu.au)

This entry was posted on July 12, 2016 at 6:20 am and is filed under CFP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.