Studies in Media Topics (298-0-20)

Topic

Introduction to Fandom

Instructors

Latina Sabinova Vidolova

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 223: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

This course will examine fandoms of major movie and TV franchises, Kpop, anime, sports, and more. Students will analyze core fandom practices like buying merch, making memes, fan fiction, and cosplay, thinking critically about how and in what ways fans comply with or critique media texts. Furthermore, students will examine fandoms as communities, considering how media industries, platforms, representations, and fans themselves influence the politics of participation within fan culture. The course will be taught through the lens of fan studies, incorporating three major strands of inquiry: the field's roots in cultural studies raise questions about subcultures, resistance, and the politics of everyday life; its entanglements with feminist and queer theory foreground fans' challenges to mass media conceptions of gender and sexuality; finally, newer efforts to decolonize fan studies extend into questions about race and nationality. Smaller weekly assignments ask students to respond to discussion questions about course readings/screenings or to apply them to a case study. As major assignments, students will develop two creative projects and revise one into their final.