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Some Thoughts on “Work”
I work from home. I know, you’re saying, we’re academics, we *all* work from home. True, but my paying job is also remote. I moved to a work-from-home situation formally in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, but I often worked from home or in spaces other than the office before that because my…
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Fan Convention Categories?
I’m still workshopping these ideas as I prepare to write about them in my dissertation, but I recently presented part of my argument related to fan conventions at the Canadian Communication Association’s Annual Convention during Congress 2021 — all virtual this year! — and I wanted to lay out some of the ideas I presented.…
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“The Family Business”: Fan Labour & Supernatural
Another one from the archives everyone! I presented this paper in 2017 but thought it was time to put it out there since Supernatural (2005-2020) is just ending its 15 season run. I say this is about Supernatural, but it’s really about Supernatural fans and the ways in which they’ve been put to work in…
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Belief in Humanity: The Challenge of Sleepy Hollow
In this edition of “post an old presentation to convince myself I can finish my dissertation” (that really needs a better title), I’m going back to Sleepy Hollow with a focus on Abbie Mills this time. The same caveats apply: I wrote this for a presentation in 2015 so the show was just finishing its…
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Rewriting History: Sleepy Hollow’s Ichabod Crane as Mary Sue
While I’m working away on my dissertation, I thought I’d post some of my old presentations. Partly I want to put them somewhere since I didn’t go any further with those only tangentially related to my research, but I also feel this need to remind myself that I have written some interesting things before and…
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Was DC Fandome a Convention?
After SDCC’s attempt at bringing their entire convention online last month, DC and Warner Bros. staged their own fan event online on August 22nd. They pulled all of the programming that they would have announced at SDCC (and that would have made the online version of the con more popular and likely would have helped…
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SDCC 2020: Boom or Bust?
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have unforeseen effects on every aspect of our lives and industries. This year the San Diego Comic-Con was first canceled and then moved completely online to reach their audience and as an experiment in online outreach for this massive convention. SDCC isn’t the first con to go online since we…
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Change is Coming? Viewing Capital in the Twenty-First Century During a Pandemic
I just finished watching Capital in the Twenty-First Century and you should go check it out while it’s still streaming either at Hot Docs at Home, Metro Cinema online, or VIFF at Home (probably some other places too). It’s based on a book and is a pretty decent overview of centuries of our global economic…
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Strong Women Refusing to Smile in Marvel’s Agent Carter
I just watched the Marvel’s Agent Carter episode “Smoke & Mirrors” (Season 2, Episode 4) and it struck me that perhaps the writers are trying to say something about asking women to smile. First of all, I think it is absolutely fabulous that these first two seasons of Agent Carter have pitted Peggy against strong, intelligent, and…
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Here be Spoilers! Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Spoiler Alert!! This is seriously your last chance to get away! (Image credit: starwars.com) I don’t usually talk about movies as soon as they come out. This is partly because I don’t always get to see them in theatres, and partly because I get distracted by other things. This time I was doing a bunch…