Instructor: Borah | Mo/We/Fr 12:20 PM – 01:15 PM
For as long as humans have enjoyed and appreciated shared experiences such as reading books, watching sports, listening to music, viewing films or television shows, or playing games, they’ve created fan communities, also known as fandoms. In this course, students will examine how fandoms have developed historically, study a variety of fan practices, learn about transcultural fandoms, examine their own fan practices, evaluate the transformative potentials and toxicities of fandoms, weigh the ethics of fan consumption, and engage in ethnographic research. Students will read selected works by Henry Jenkins (participatory culture), Ebony Elisabeth Thomas (The Dark Fantastic), Katherine Larsen (academic fans), Kristina Busse (queer fandom), Sheenagh Pugh (fanfiction), and others.