SCMS Fan and Audience Studies SIG

International Journal of Cultural Studies, volume 29, issue 2, 2026. Special issue: Transcultural Fandom.

Have you read our 29.2 issue yet?

We would like to thank guest editors Henry Jenkins and Kedi Zhou (University of Southern California, USA) for bringing together this special issue on Transcultural Fandom.

Follow the thread to know more about the articles 🧵
@popjunctions.bsky.social

SIG member Melanie Kohnen talks to Amanda Lotz about her new book: aca-media.org

We're just a few weeks out from this year's conference in Chicago, but mark your calendars for next year in Montreal! O Canada! 🇨🇦

What Is With... Wuthering Heights’ emotionally intense press tour? The movie's leads Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi's 'mutual obsession' has attracted mixed reactions. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Was interviewed by Singapore's Straits Times on celebrities' ramped up performances while on press tour junkets, playing up their characters' relationships & bringing it to off-screen to the red carpets &. interviews.
www.straitstimes.com/life/enterta...

Do you read or write fanfiction? Take a few minutes to fill out this survey on fanfic authors’ and readers’ perspectives on generative AI. You must be 18 years or older to participate. Please repost and share with friends! bit.ly/FF-AI

Cover of Journal of Greek Media & Culture Volume 11 Number 2 featuring editorial and article listings on a green background.

Intellect is pleased to present Journal of Greek Media & Culture 11.2!

Special Issue: ‘Greek Stardom and Celebrity: Histories and Methods’

Including ‘I Was Born Greek and Melina Mercouri’s move from film to political stardom’ by Lina Rosi

https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/jgmc/11/2

Anyone in #AcademicSky interested in writing a micro-essay on the overlaps between fandom and politics during the current state of affairs in the United States? @fanstudies.bsky.social @scmsfaas.bsky.social @fsnnorthamerica.bsky.social @icahdq.bsky.social @pcaaca.bsky.social

CFP: Besides the Screen Ningbo 2026: Audiences, Subjects & Agents

University of Nottingham Ningbo China

June 4-6, 2026

Deadline for submissions: March 1, 2026

besidesthescreen.com

Extremely exciting news: We're hiring a full-time film critic to come work with me at The A.V. Club!

You probably have an idea if you're qualified for this, but if there's something that's not in the job listing, I'm sure I can answer Qs www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

SCMS Fan and Audience Studies -- 2025 Member Publications It's time to promote your 2025 publications! Enter as many as you want, but please only fan and audience studies-focused publications and only things that came out in 2025. (Save in-press and forthcom...

Let's try this 2025 publication round-up one more time! SIG members: use this form to report any fan or audience studies pubs from 2025. We'll make a list of our collective accomplishments to share at SCMS. Deadline for submissions March 1. forms.gle/igLDtbu2Li6u...

Job alert! One-year in film studies!

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the distribution of many films since 2020, but none more so than films that were in theaters when lockdowns closed multiplexes. To compensate for the collapsed theatrical window, studios quickly shifted films like Emma, The Hunt, and The Invisible Man to premium video-on-demand (or PVOD) rentals and fashioned ad-hoc promotional campaigns accentuating the surprise of their sudden digital availability. The centerpiece of these studio efforts was the ‘Watch Party’, which asked people to rent and watch the films ‘together’ with synchronized start times and real-time Twitter conversations. Studios also enlisted celebrity participants, including filmmakers who shared behind-the-scenes insights and digital influencers who delivered reactionary riffs on the films. Close analysis of promotional materials (e.g. social media posts, videos, key art) reveals that rather than replicating the theatrical viewing environment, Watch Parties instead imitated Social TV initiatives of the 2010s, including live-tweeted chatter, targeted hashtags, celebrity contributions, and canned production anecdotes. Although Watch Parties waned as the pandemic brought new distribution challenges, their emergence demonstrates Hollywood’s continued interest in constructing shared, limited-time, and now multi-screen experiences. This article identifies Watch Parties as ephemeral media events that are part of the lineage of ritualistic media events and nine-figure marketing plans but that also leverage the surprise of unique distribution circumstances to create short-lived bursts of virality and immediacy. The framework provides a new perspective on digital distribution and media events amid the increased industry and consumer preoccupation with on-demand streaming portals.

Happy to see this article on virtual watch parties for films that were *in theaters* when COVID hit finally see the light of day in New Review of Film and TV Studies.

Played Ghost of Yōtei? Please check out my research study on character identification! Please click this link depaul.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
to participate or find out more info!
@icagames.bsky.social @scmsfaas.bsky.social @scmsvideogames.bsky.social

The voting period for the 2026 SCMS election is now open and will close on February 27. To participate, one must be an active member and logged in. Get involved and vote for your representatives! Learn more here: cmstudies.org/page/Election2026

Waving the cancelling wand: Harry Potter fans and the cancellation of J.K. Rowling The “cancelling” of celebrities is typically understood as a stark, immediate withdrawal of support. However, what happens when cancellation intersects with fandom, known to endure long after artis...

excited to see my article, "Waving the cancelling wand: Harry Potter fans and the cancellation of J.K. Rowling," with Guilherme Giolo and Simone Driessen, out in the world. and it's open access! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A few days left to submit your 500-word abstract for the Trans-Asian Transcultural Fandom Symposium 🫰

Deadline 📆 Feb 1

Find out more ▶️ transasianfan.wordpress.com

We welcome your submissions 🫶

#CallForPapers #CFP #Fandom #FanStudies #AcademicSky #TransculturalFandom

Rethinking watching: A viewer-centred approach to understanding the changing audience experience. Amanda D. Lotz (Queensland University of Technology, Australia), Catherine Johnson (University of Leeds, UK), Jonathan Gray (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

This article draws from studies of contemporary watching to reframe screen audience studies to manage the behaviours, modes, and motives of watching that transcend television, streaming, and social media.

Read the full article here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
@drtvlotz.bsky.social

Call for Papers for Special Issue: "Digital Darkside" — DIGSUM We are seeking contributions to a special issue of JDSR (Journal of Digital Social Research, jdsr.io ) on the topic of digital darkside .

Following the Digital Darkside symposium at The DIGSUM Centre for Digital Social Research at Umeå University last year, I'm co-editing a special issue of Journal of Digital Social Research on the topic of digital darkside.

For further info see the CFP at www.digsum.org/digsum-feed/...

FSNNA 2026 Committee Application FSNNA held its first conference in October 2018 to gather fan studies scholars in one place to meet, share new research, and promote the study of fanworks and fan cultures. During the Covid-19 pandemi...

Psst! Hey you!
The FSNNA Organizing Committee is recruiting new volunteers to bring fresh perspectives & ideas to the committee, and we'd love it if you applied!

Applications are open till Jan 31, 2026. Don't miss out!

#TrueCrime: Digital Culture, Ethics and True Crime Audiences The book considers the large and varied true crime community, outlining their at times contradictory needs and desires

#TrueCrime: Digital Culture, Ethics and True Crime Audiences has been published! My chapter undertakes a content analysis of school-shooter fanfiction, arguing that it can function as a form of resistance to dominant cultural narratives.

The book is available at link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Here’s a friendly reminder about the conference we are running at the ITU in May: playingfutures.today
Deadline for abstracts is February 16th, and the conference will take place May 20th to 22nd in Copenhagen. Look at our call for papers for more details: playingfutures.today/call-for-pap...

The OLH Open Access Award 2026: call for applications The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is proud to continue its work towards its open access mission across the globe with the OLH Open Access Award 2026, a fund dedicated …

The Open Library of Humanities Open Access Award 2026. Applications for OLH funding of up to £500 are welcomed from individuals or organisations and may be used to help fund events, projects or activities on #OA or with an #openaccess component.

📅 Deadline 30/06: www.openlibhums.org/news/882/

Book Launch: Fandom Nationalism: Participatory Censorship and Performative Patriotism in East Asia

Date: 4 February 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 2:30pm-4:00pm

Venue: C-Centre (NAH313, Humanities Building, CUHK)

cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view...

Reminder to register for the SCMS 2026 by this Wednesday!

SCMS 2026 attendees: If you would like your panel, workshop or roundtable to be considered for FaAS SIG sponsorship, please email the panel, workshop or roundtable title and abstract and full list of all presenters to scmsfaas at gmail by 5pm CT Wednesday, January 14th.

Hi folks! I’m currently co-editing a special issue for GAME about queer and trans games studies. Find the full cfp here www.gamejournal.it/n-132025-bey..., deadline for abstract submission is 12 January 2026!

cover of Professor Superstar: Fandom and Anti-Fandom of Academia by Mel Stanfill

Image of the first page of Professor Superstar, reading: "Academics are fans, by any workable definition.—Alan McKee (2007) "We must undergo a change of heart. We must change our attitudes and stop being fans. Just say no to academostars."—Sharon O’Dair (2001) “Ugh, I hate that guy,” my fellow grad student said. The person walking by was one of the most famous people ever to graduate from my PhD program, who had returned to campus for one of a series of annual “reunions.” This was partially a networking opportunity for current students and partially about proving something about the program to university administrators in a way I only vaguely understood at the time. Just an hour or two earlier, I’d heard another fellow grad student hijack a series of elevator pitch talks about our research to gush over the same famous scholar, telling him how much she admired him instead of about her research (to his credit, he gently redirected her). This bifurcation, with some people clearly fans of this guy and some clearly anti-fans, was what first made me want to write this book. When and how and why do academics become objects of fandom and anti-fandom? At the time, I was most interested in how academics become such objects to one another, but the intervening years have seen relentless and escalating attacks on academics and academia from politicians and pundits, demonstrating that antipathy toward higher education can be a fun pastime for the whole family.

it's a weird time to be excited, but i am nevertheless excited to hold Professor Superstar: Fandom and Anti-Fandom of Academia in my hand. press.umich.edu/Books/P/Prof...

Reminder to register by Wednesday!

Congrats to SIG members Bethan, Ben, and Simone for the kudos to their edited collection Participatory Culture Wars!

<em>Tielian</em> in Mixed Realism: Real Person Fan Fiction and Collective Memory in Contemporary Chinese Fandom This article investigates the question of authenticity in Chinese real-person fan fiction (RPF), a fan-fiction subgenre centered on real-world celebrities. Through the lens of tielian (“getting close ...

New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️

PAN, S., (2025) “Tielian in Mixed Realism: Real Person Fan Fiction and Collective Memory in Contemporary Chinese Fandom”, Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images 5(1).

#FanStudies

doi.org/10.3998/gs.7...