This post is part of a series. View the last post for context.
Since I made the video so long, I’m going to keep this part short. All you really need to know about this week is that Fan Studies is a deeply fascinating field. This week’s readings covered everything from the anthropologist Michel de Certeau’s concept of textual poaching to a 1950’s Senate hearing about whether Batman and Robin were making the children gay. I had a great time with this week’s readings, and I’m happy to be moving from discussion of interdisciplinarity itself to the real meat of the course. I’ll be facilitating discussion this week, and I’m preparing questions related to a wide variety of topics that caught my eye while reading, but especially Henry Jenkins’s gendered reading of media fandom as “feminine.”
My poetry workshop this week will require me to read and comment carefully on five poems. We’re also going to hear from a removal technician, a polite term for someone who gets dead bodies from wherever they ended up to the funeral home or morgue. I’m semi-dreading it, but I’m sure it will be illuminating.
Watch the video to hear me ramble about a variety of things, including my plan to turn my closet into a Zen meditation space.
Don’t forget to watch the video above, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check back every Monday for more in this series. As always, email kristen.walker@utdallas.edu with questions and comments.