SCMS Fan and Audience Studies SIG

When you're trying to plan your conference schedule but the @scmstudies.bsky.social website is down.... Anybody else having this trouble?

Feminist fan engagement and collective agency: A case study of Barbie in China. Xinyao Yuan (Tsinghua University, China), Ruoyu Yang (City University of Hong Kong, China), Zheng Zhang (Tsinghua University, China)

To understand how Chinese fans use Barbie—a symbol of Western culture—as a tool for feminist expression, this study examines their motivations, strategies, and the cultural tensions they navigate.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367...

When transcultural fandom meets nationalism: Chinese cosplayers’ identity negotiation between global flows and local places. Zituo Wang (University of Southern California, USA), Haoyu Huang (Wuhan University, China).

This study investigates Chinese cosplayers within the tensions between transcultural fandom and nationalism, proposing a framework that distinguishes between the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of identity negotiation.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367...

Meaningfully playful: Gender, sexuality, and civic imaginations in Korean and Chinese fandom cultures. Do Own (Donna) Kim (University of Illinois Chicago, USA), Fang Wu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)

The authors discuss South Korean and Chinese fandom cultures’ intertwinement with civic engagements, the role that gender and sexuality play in this process, and how such civic imaginations emerge domestically and transculturally.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367...

Check out this dialogue with our SIG co-chair Lori Morimoto!

"Fixing" race across the Pacific: Transcultural reinterpretations in the Genshin Impact fandom. Yvonne Gonzales (University of Southern California, USA), Fanxi Feng (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), Samantha Tecson (University of Southern California, USA), Kirsten Crowe (University of Southern California, USA).

This paper follows the reinterpretation of Genshin Impact to show how the fluidity of concepts of race allows fans to reconstruct local racial hegemonies in their practices.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367...
@oldmythos.bsky.social @scarinat.bsky.social @kirstencrowe.bsky.social

Fan-driven paratextuality in the audios: Film and television podcast in the post-fansubbing era of Chinese translational fandom. Dingkun Wang (The University of Hong Kong, China), Xiaochun Zhang (University College London, UK)

This paper explores the rise of fan podcasting, examining how fan podcasters reconfigure media translation by mobilising audio practices that traverse linguistic, cultural, and technological boundaries.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367...

Transcultural fan studies with a ‘Queer Asia’ focus in the 2020s. Jamie J. Zhao (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong).

Highlighting relevant changes in academic and social worlds, this paper advocates for a paradigm shift in which Asia is recognized as the origin—imaginatively and figuratively—for gender and sexual discourses in transcultural fandom studies.

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1177/1367...

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/