Transcultural Fandom Group - USC
CFP Transcultural Fandom in East Asia
East Asian media production has had an increasingly potent impact on the world in recent decades. From the streaming success of Squid Games and the extensive fan community around The Untamed, East Asian popular culture products have emerged as dominant forces of interest for international fans. Concurrently, imports from the United States such as Barbie have intense social responses in East Asian cultural spaces. At the heart of this cultural exchange is the phenomenon of transcultural fandom–fan communities that transcend linguistic, national, and/or cultural boundaries to engage with media texts in nuanced, interconnected ways.
Many countries around the world see their youth looking outside their borders for popular media, despite fairly recent histories of war, ideological conflict, atrocity and colonization at these same intersections. A central concern for us is the tension between pop cosmopolitanism and fan nationalism as they are performed across different forms of fan practice. We are also interested in the ways pop culture allows fans to explore issues of gender, sexual, and racial identity, especially as forms of popular culture get exchanged between nations with different political, spiritual, cultural, and economic histories.
We are particularly interested in collaborative and comparative work that allows us to see similarities and differences in the region’s fandoms. Work may take a pedestrian perspective on the ground dealing with material practices or may deal with the changing geographies and platforms of cyberspace.
For these proposals, we ask: how might we map and understand these fan communities as they bridge between cultures and narratives? The following are among the transcultural fan practices the research group will be able to explore:
We will then use such explorations as a way to among other things::
In line with our call for submissions, we are seeking proposals that delve into the transcultural aspects of fandom across East Asia. As you prepare your proposal, we encourage you to detail your projects in ways that connect the unique dynamics of local and transnational fan practices. These proposal are being considered for:
International Journal of Cultural Studies
Your proposal should clearly outline the scope and purpose of your research. You may choose to focus on a single country within East Asia, examining how local fans engage with foreign media, or you might offer a dialogic study that explores the contrasts and similarities between fan communities across multiple nations in the region. Whether you are investigating K-pop fandom in China, the growing influence of Bollywood in Japan, or the role of anime and manga in Korea, we ask that you highlight how these fan practices transcend cultural, political, and ideological boundaries. We are also interested in representing the broadest possible range of fan activities across the two special issues.
In clear prose, your proposal should include: a strong case for how your research contributes to the broader discourse on transcultural fandom, and specific examples or case studies that illuminate the issues at hand.
Proposal Deadline: October 15, 2024
Word Count for proposal: 500-700 words
Author bios: 100-150 for each author
Please submit your proposal here.
Full Draft Manuscript Deadline: January 15, 2025