The Fan Studies Network

CFP: Call for Submissions for chapters in an edited book
Book title: *Revisiting the Aca-fan Concept with and beyond Jenkins*
Submission deadline: October 1st, 2016.
Editor: Prof. Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb – Centre Norbert Elias (Eds.)
Publisher: Routledge

*Description*
Jenkins has described himself as an “Aca-fan”, a term that first gained currency in the early 1990’s. Jenkins is further credited with helping in the wide-spread popularization of the term, together with Matt Hills’ concept of the “fan-academic”, that describes an academic who consciously identifies and writes as a fan. Jenkins’s theories was extensively discussed in 2011, in a special issue of Cultural Studies edited by James Hay and Nick Couldry but this volume did not focus on the Aca-fan concept. Furthermore, over the past several years and in spite of the Hills or Jenkins partial responses (Hills has enlighten his approach of the acafan in « Media Academics as Media Audiences: Aesthetic Judgements in Media and Cultural Studies », 2007) and the few papers published worldwide (Maigret-Macé, 2005; Booth, 2013; Cristofari-Guitton, 2015, Gimello-Vilatte, 2015), the academic community (including fandom studies scholars) had not yet deeply explored the perimeter of the Aca-fan concept as a whole topic of study. More recently, Paul Booth acknowledged that the ‘Aca-fan’ “does not do enough to involve fans in the process of research”, (Booth, 2013) while Bruno Cailler and Cécile Masoni observed an antagonism between both communities (Masoni-Cailler, 2015). Paradoxically, while Jenkins most powerful concepts such as transmedia convergence or participatory audiences were dissected worldwide, the Aca-fan heuristic values remain relatively neglected and under-discussed within the academic field.

*Statement of Aims*
Guided by these questions, we are seeking chapters for an edited collection that historicizes, interrogates and problematizes the Aca-fan concept as a stimulating framework. The aim of this edited volume is to both revisiting and reinterpret, from an epistemological perspective, several research defined key concepts that have formulated “fan-academic” propositions with and beyond Hills and Jenkins among others. Editors are especially interested in testimonies from academics engaged in emerging academic fields, where the Aca-fan concept is familiarized such as studies in performing arts, popular music, digital games, media studies, communication sciences, or audience theory and media epistemology, just to name a few.

We invite prospective participants to submit a 500 words abstract that draws upon empirical and/or critical approaches through the exploration of Aca-fan contemporary and/or historical issues. Chapters may address (but are not limited to) the following topics:

*Analyzing early profane and academic works, prior to Hills and Jenkins, that are devoted to academic fandom such as “An Ethnography of Star Trek Fandom” (Di Costanzo, 1977) or “Thinking About Slash/Thinking About Women” (Bjorklund, 1988), among others.
*Case studies stemming from scholars implementing the Aca-fan concept in their classes and further questioning the impact of such, from an epistemological perspective.
*The Aca-fan concept: concerning a practice-based Audience theory and Reception Studies
*Discussing Social Science Methodology through the Aca-fan: Is the scholar a fan just “like the others”?
*What is the concept meaning to non Aca-fan scholars?
*Legally introduce scholar’s tastes and quality judgment through academic writings: A (new) form of criticism?
*Participant Observation Data Collection method
* Analysis of academic debates regarding Aca-Fandom rhetoric

Please submit a 500 word abstract, a list of 10 references and a brief biography to Centre Norbert Elias – Prof. Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb (cne-ecc@[alt]univ-avignon.fr) by *October 1st, 2016. *Successful submissions will be notified on October 15th. Upon acceptance, full articles (between 6000 and 8000 words, including references) will be due at the latest on the 1st of December.

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