The Fan Studies Network

PhD Scholarship

One PhD Scholarship is available through the Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle, Australia, for a research program in celebrity and fan cultures under the supervision of Dr Joyleen Christensen.

Expressions of interest are being sought from highly motivated and enthusiastic applicants interested in pursuing an intensive PhD program in the field of celebrity and fan cultures. Projects focusing on fan cultures based on individual celebrities and/or specific films or television series are particularly welcome. The scholarship is provided by the University of Newcastle under the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Higher Degree Research (HDR) Candidate Scholarships scheme. As part of the conditions of this scholarship, the candidate will be required to complete six-monthly progress reports. The selected HDR candidate must be a domestic candidate and must commence their program no later than the 31 March 2019. Information on the scholarships and application process can be found through the University of Newcastle’s Graduate Research office.

Applications Close 29 June 2018

Call for Chapter Proposals for Anthology

Title: Eating Fandom: Intersections between Fans and Food Culture

Editors: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard (Dominican University), Bertha Chin (Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak, Malaysia) and Julia E. Largent (McPherson College)

Rationale: An emerging field of fan studies looks at how fans interact with different aspects and elements of food cultures. This collection seeks to address the myriad ways that fandom and food culture intersect.

A food culture refers to the individuals, networks, and institutions involved in the production, distribution, and consumption of food, as well as the norms, beliefs, artifacts and activities that constitute and circulate through that culture. Food cultures vary across nations, societies, cultures, and historical periods, with trends and techniques adapting and shaping attitudes, practices, and consumption habits. Thus, a food culture can be dependent upon, and influential to, a specific community. As a fandom can represent such specific communities, fan studies scholars are now turning more attention to how fan communities view and use food as part of the practices and values that constitute that collective; or how fan practices are being replicated in the relationship between foodies and producers.

Additionally, with the perception of fan identities as involving certain affective, cognitive, and behavioral components, the conceptualization of what is a fan can be extended to understand individuals within a food culture and see them identifying as a “fan” of a specific food, culinary school, technique, and so forth. Both professionals and foodies could thus be classified as fans, and the networks and institutions that constitute the food culture could be studied for how they create and maintain such food-based fandoms.

This anthology seeks to gather research studies that examine the different ways fandoms and food cultures intersect. The goal would be for a collection of empirically-based essays that utilize a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives from different disciplines. The collection would hopefully serve to inspire other scholars on the range of intersections available to study as well as how to study such intersections. It would also hopefully serve to expand on the ways in which fan studies’ theoretical frameworks could be applied to other fields of research.

We are looking for essays that consider the relationships and roles of food in fandoms as well as the view of food cultures as fandoms. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Foodies as fans
• Food production as fan activity
• Food consumption as fan activity
• Fandom-related foods
• Chefs, culinary professionals as fans
• Convergence culture and food culture
• Fans of food shows
• Fans of food celebrities
• Fans and cooking, food literacy
• Food community as fan community
• Fans and food activism
• Importance of food in fan collectives
• Negotiating food fan identities

Chapter proposal guidelines

• Seeking empirically-based essays of 6000-7000 words, inclusive of references (APA citation style)
• Proposals should contain the following:
  • Contributors’ contact information (name, title, affiliation, email, highest degree obtained)
  • Chapter title
  • Chapter abstract of 250-500 words that illustrate the chapter’s
    • a) topic/subject matter
    • b) methodological approach
    • c) conclusions/argument
• Proposals are due June 30, 2018
• Proposals, and questions, should be emailed to CarrieLynn at creinhard@dom.edu