[Commlist] CFP: Fan Studies in Digital Contexts

*Call for Papers: Fan Studies in Digital Contexts*

First Seminar of the Research Group GER Fans, SFSIC 2023 Pre-conference 
(Bordeaux, France)

Date: Tuesday, June 13th from 9am to 6pm

Place:  IUT de Bordeaux Montaigne, Bordeaux, France

Format: hybrid (online & on-site)

Presentation:

The first seminar organized by the GREF (the French and French-speaking 
Research Group on Fans) aims at highlighting a new generation of (young) 
researchers in Fan Studies and at giving a particular place to European, 
French-focused and French-speaking works. This seminar, certified by the 
SFSIC (French Society of Information and Communication Sciences), serves 
as a preconference to the SFSIC Annual Conference dedicated to 
"societies' digitalization" and will take place on June 13th in 
Bordeaux, France. It will therefore focus on the relationship between 
digitalization and fandom both in terms of research topics and 
methodological practice.

If Fan Studies is a well-developed research area in English-speaking 
countries, it has only recently emerged in France and is still quite new 
there. This seminar therefore intends to foster dialogue between a new 
generation of researchers interested in the place of the digital within 
European and international French-speaking Fan Studies.

The seminar will particularly focus on 3 directions:

1) Fan Studies and/in Research Methods

What are the methods used by contemporary Fan Studies research within 
the current digital context?

The  multidisciplinarity inherent to Fan Studies is what explains its 
use of original methodologies from various sources that have been seen 
since the beginnings of the field (Jenkins 1992). Internet and social 
media have complexified but also expanded how scholars study fandom and 
fan communities (Booth 2010). Within this axis, we invite submissions 
dedicated to the various research methodologies employed by researchers 
for their projects, as well as the theoretical, disciplinary and 
empirical stakes they entail. Surveys, interviews, on-site ethnography, 
netnography (Coleman 2010), online video analysis are but a few of the 
methodologies that have helped shed light on fandom and fan communities. 
Each of them also has its limits that one must face and discuss to avoid 
any biais.

How can one get access to fans? How to account for their activities on 
all platforms and media? How to not distrust researchers' alterity? And 
how can one analyze and link the different bodies of work collected? 
These are some of the questions that can be addressed in this axis.

2) Fan creations, reception & participation

The diverse forms of active, affective and/or creative reception that 
characterise fans (Fiske, 1992; Lamerichs, 2018) became bigger and more 
visible with the digital migration of some fandoms. The worldwide web, 
alongside other types of digital communication, provided suitable 
platforms for fans' exchanges, the building-up of knowledge and the 
development and circulation of fans' analyses. Similarly, appropriation 
practices of original content developed and diversified online, from 
fanfictions to fanvids, fanart or scantrads. Some websites, amateur and 
commercial, as well as some social media (LiveJournal, Tumblr, YouTube, 
etc.) became rich archives for fan creations (de Kosnik, 2016). This 
shift in practices created tensions toward more traditional and material 
fan activities (collecting, cosplay) or from the perspective of 
historically selfless and not-for-profit creativity (Scott, 2009; Hein, 
2011). We therefore invite here proposals that research and interpret 
the various forms of fans' participatory reception. The goal is to 
confront them the digitalization processes that have been taking place 
and to underline their cultural and sociological teachings.

3) Fan engagement

One of the structuring questions of Fan Studies research revolves around 
"fan activism" (Jenkins, 2012; Besson, 2021). Fans' active 
appropriations are showcased through a plethora of activities that 
reflect their civic and political engagement. Fictional characters are 
seen as "emotional and intellectual engagement levers" (Bourdaa,2021) 
and work as flagships for shared values. Collective rallyings within 
fandoms generally deal with demands also relayed in the public sphere 
and that sometimes have concrete impacts on society. Proposals in this 
axis can focus on new case studies around fan engagements and, for 
example, the concept of "civic imagination" (Jenkins et al., 2020). If 
the global trend is to showcase progressive points of view (towards 
women rights, race, LGBTQ+ communities or disabled people), the question 
of conservative perspective and resistance is also worth studying. 
Proposals are welcome to steer away from the study of fiction fandoms, 
invested in imaginary worlds, to look at other fan communities (of 
sports, music, or other interests).

Submission Details:

Submissions should not exceed 500 words + 100-word author's bio. They 
should be sent by April 11th, 2023 at:

·(helene.breda /at/ univ-paris13.fr)

·(melanie.bourdaa /at/ u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr)

Deadline for submission: 11/04

Expected answer from the reviewing committee to authors: 21/04

Scientific committee:

Hélène Bréda, Université Paris Nord

Justine Breton, Université Reims

Mélanie Bourdaa, Université Bordeaux Montaigne

Julie Escurignan, EMLV, Paris

Sébastien François, Université Catholique de l'Ouest

David Peyron, Université Aix-Marseille

	
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