Presenters confirmed for FanLIS: Five Years of FanLIS, online symposium to be held on 22nd May 2025. Speaker details are subject to change.
Keynote:
Julia Bullard
I Am Giving This Talk Instead of Sleeping
For the fifth anniversary of FanLIS, I’ll look back at the diversity of library and information science phenomena studied and ask: why is each of these questions so engaging when applied to fandom practices? My own work on fanfiction and gaming communities suggests three key qualities of fandom at play: its creativity, its relationality, and its joyfulness. To demonstrate how this works, I’ll remix research findings from knowledge organization, human-computer interaction, and information policy. This framework can predict and affirm the continued relevance of fandom to LIS. Where the framework misses scenes within FanLIS, I look forward to generative fix-it scholarship!
Biography
Julia Bullard is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Information, where she is an uninvited guest on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded lands of the Musqueam people. Her research examines how metadata and vocabulary design (mis)represent communities and their materials. Her ongoing work focuses on how catalogues can more fully represent LGBT2QIA+ communities. She is the Past President of the Canadian Association for Information Science and serves on the Subject Analysis and Access standing committee of IFLA. She holds a PhD in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, an MLIS from the University of British Columbia, and an MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from McMaster University.
Susrita Das
Food, fan art, and preserving a moment in time: a case study of the fandom-themed cafe ecosystem as alternative memory institution
This paper attempts to understand whether fandom-inspired or themed cafés, often analysed as “thirdspaces”, can be considered alternative memory institutions, owing to archival properties embedded onto them by businesses or lent to them singularly by the nature of fannish activities permitted, and even encouraged, within their premises. Delving into case studies developed around Hallyu-inspired fandom cafés in Kolkata and Siliguri in India, and employing threefold methodological strategies—participant observation, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews—this study analyses the aesthetic, culinary, and marketing choices that go into sustaining these spaces while also becoming a record of a particular phase in the media text’s life, thus freezing within its “fandom ecosystem” an object of, and simultaneously, a moment in subcultural memory. Therefore, a look at the specific features at the location—decor, props for special themed events, music, etc.—may reveal subcultural knowledge, non-traditional documentation and exhibition methods, information dissemination strategies, and a multi-sensorial way of practicing identity and fandom in a highly glocalized context.
Biography
Susrita Das is a doctoral fellow at the Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where she is specializing in fan studies, with a particular interest in Hallyu fandoms in India and their relationship with food in a transcultural context. She is also invested in young adult and girlhood narratives and the intersections between ideology, new media, and feminisms, especially in the South Asian context. Susrita holds an MPhil in English Literature and has previously worked as a popular culture editor and ESL subject matter expert.
Saskia Dreßler
How subversive is shipping really? An analysis of heteronormative elements in same-sex relationships focused on German-language anime and manga fan fiction
Are German-language fan fictions with lesbian and gay characters from the anime and manga domain really queer? This presentation seeks to answer this question. First, it outlines the fan traditions within
which German fans operate, followed by excerpts from the analysis. The presentation examines whether heteronormative narrative patterns can be found in fan fiction featuring gay and lesbian protagonists, and
which elements from the original media were selected for adaptation in the fan fiction. An analysis of fan comments provides further insight into whether fans are aware of the narrative patterns and information
they adopt from their personal media experiences. A qualitative content analysis was conducted, with the ‘Naruto’ and ‘Sailor Moon’ fandoms serving as examples.
Biography
Saskia Dreßler studied the master program of the Master of Media Research at Stuttgart Media University. In her master’s thesis she conducted research on the heteronormative elements of fan reception of
anime and manga fandoms. Otherwise she works in a project position at the Japanese Visual Media Graph (JVMG), where, among other things, she oversees the creation of the JVMG ontology and communicates with different fan communities of Japanese visual media fandoms.
Tom Ue & Kristofer Starzomski-Wilson
Make It Pink: Superman, Pink Kryptonite, and Fandom
This paper explores representations of, and fan responses, to pink kryptonite in the Superman canon. In Doug Murphy’s animated short film True Colors (2017), Superman transforms into a woman when he’s exposed to this substance. This short, as we have shown elsewhere (2025), offers a useful lens for examining the perpetuation and the critique of gender stereotypes in superhero media: Superman may be equally capable regardless of his sex, but the film pokes fun at, rather than celebrates, his transformation. Pink kryptonite appears so rarely in the canon. A single panel in Supergirl (2003) has received perhaps the most sustained attention. Tom Ue’s archival work at the Library of Congress has revealed but one more instance, in an issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (2019). In both cases, exposure to the substance makes Superman attracted to Jimmy, and they leave us with more questions than answers: That Jimmy does not reciprocate the superhero’s attentions in either instance makes all the more apparent the power imbalance in this sexualized relationship. In this paper, we argue that pink kryptonite can be a useful catalyst for initiating all kinds of critical discussions regarding gender norms and that this conversation has been productively continued by fans. Through close analysis of both comics and films, and through sleuthing of fan treatments of pink kryptonite—queer responses to the superhero narrative by fans for fans—in their spaces, this paper weighs in on both the potentials and the limitations of canonical texts; reveals how fan extensions have reclaimed Superman; and argues for the value of libraries and information repositories.
Biographies
Tom Ue is Assistant Professor in English of the Long Nineteenth Century at Cape Breton University, Editor of the Journal of Popular Film and Television, and Advisory Editor of The Complete Letters of Henry James (University of Nebraska Press). He is the author of Gissing, Shakespeare, and the Life of Writing (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming) and George Gissing (Liverpool University Press, forthcoming); and the editor of George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming). Professor Ue is an Honorary Research Associate at University College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Email: ue_tom@hotmail.com.
Kristofer Starzomski-Wilson reads History at Cape Breton University, where he holds an Undergraduate Student Scholar Award. He has always been enthralled by the world of comics and superheroes, having been introduced to them at a young age. Starzomski-Wilson aims to become a teacher after he completes his studies. Email: cbu23blcc@cbu.ca.
Billy Tringali, Maria Alberto & Jeremiah Martinez
Fun, Friends, and Fitness – Why Fans Attend Anime Conventions
This talk presents a portion of our research into the social and cultural impact of in-person anime conventions on convention attendees. Initial data was collected from 1000+ respondents around the world during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and emphasized the need for collective, physical spaces in which to build community.
Biographies
Billy Tringail is a Faculty Librarian at Indiana University Indianapolis. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies. He is also Coordinator of the JAMS@AX Academic Symposium, an academic conference that takes place inside of Anime Expo.
Maria K. Alberto (she/her) is a scholar of literature and new media currently teaching at the University of Utah, where she just completed her PhD. Her research explores canon(s) and community in popular culture, tabletop roleplaying game texts, transformative fanworks, and digital platforms. Recent work can be found in Transformative Works and Cultures, Convergence, and The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.
Jeremiah Martinez is an undergraduate student at Indiana University Indianapolis majoring in Media Arts and Science with specializations in Digital Storytelling and Video Production/Sound Design. With a passion for the sequential arts, Martinez is working to write and draw manga while educating himself and others on the medium.
Beck Chason-McCarthy
Multi-Sited Ethnography of Online Fan Binding communities: implications for LIS fields and Allied Crafts
Fanbinding, the practice of printing and binding fanfiction has become more common in recent years. While Archive of Our Own was born as a result of purges and mass erasure of fan works, the popularity of archiving and preserving fanfiction physically rather than digitally did not see a resurgence until the COVID-19 pandemic.
This presentation focuses on an anthropological study that compares and contrasts the culture in both the Renegade Bindery Discord server, and amongst TikTok fanbinders. The ethnographic methodology allows an examination of the community values and culture in a qualitative manner. The presentation builds on previous research about fanbinding, craft revivals, and Library & Information Sciences activities as serious leisure for fans. It considers the implications of fans becoming amateur bookbinders as related crafts and fields are challenged or endangered.
Biography
Beck Chason-McCarthy is a senior undergraduate student in the Anthropology Department of the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has worked in Library Preservation and Conservation for the past two years. Recently she has conducted research and archival work on the University at Albany’s collections of Guatemalan textiles. Her research interests include the ethnography and preservation of fan communities and fan works, historical dyes and pigments, sign languages in contact, historical foodways, and fanbinding as a craft.
Melissa D. Nelson
Almost, beyond, or alongside fandom? An alternative frame for QAnon
In recent years, fan studies scholars have attempted to use theories and frameworks emerging from fan studies to study atypical forms of ‘fandom’ or ‘fans’, including proponents of QAnon. However, QAnon does not quite fit the characteristics of a traditional fandom: there is no canonical source to transform, nor a known object or figure to uphold. In this presentation, I argue that QAnon might better be understood as an example of parafandom, a community which simultaneously co-constructs and transforms its canonical text. This framing offers FanLIS researchers a novel way to study fannish forms of dis/misinformation with an emphasis on the role of participatory information creation as well as a potential dichotomy (parafan vs. ‘outsider’) that can help make sense of what happens when fan texts break free of their fannish origins.
Biography
Melissa D. Nelson (she/her) is a first year PhD student at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests centre on knowledge organization and migration within parafandoms and other communities who co-create fannish texts. More broadly, she is also interested in the ethics of research with online data, folksonomies, digital infrastructure, and information behaviour of fans. Melissa holds a Masters of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from UBC and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Simon Fraser University.
Amber Sewell
Fandom does belong in the classroom: Designing a study of fandom, student confidence, and intertextual expertise
This presentation will focus on the preliminary stages of research into fandom, student confidence, and intertextual expertise. There is a good amount of research exploring how curiosity-driven teaching approaches result in increased engagement with subject matter and better academic performance, as well as the benefits of incorporating pop culture references into information and media literacy instruction. This study will further this research while linking it to the idea of fandom expertise (Hills, 2015) by looking specifically at students who choose to research topics of which they are fans. Based on interviews with students taking an introductory composition course with a research assignment, this study will seek to answer two questions: 1) Can allowing or encouraging students to research topics they are already familiar with strengthen critical thinking skills by way of intertextual expertise, and 2) Do students feel increased confidence as researchers when they can position themselves as experts in the subject matter? This presentation will provide a synthesis of background research on the topic and go into the methodology that will be implemented in the fall 2025 study; the author will share ideas for others interested in implementing similar studies at their institutions.
Biography
Amber Sewell, she/hers, is a Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she works primarily with first- and second-year undergraduate students. Her research interests include games for instruction and outreach, pop culture, and fandom. Creator and host of The LibParlor Podcast, she is also interested in podcasting as a means of making scholarship more widely available.
