In the past fans were often described as low-brow, indiscriminate consumers of media products with a near-pathological obsession of the objects of their desire, be it movie stars, sports teams or band merchandise. Cultural Studies, and the more recent field of Fan Studies, have offered more diverse discourses on fans, stressing their potential as creative consumers, and on fandom as a multileveled testing ground for identity experiments as well as an unlimited source for the empowerment of the individual.
Are you a fan? Or perhaps an anti-fan? Let us explore what fandom means and see how practicing fandom can be personally and academically rewarding. This course will combine Cultural Studies approaches, phenomenological approaches in the Winter term and ultimately hopes to apply the knowledge with event management tasks to organize a fan convention in the summer term 2025.
For B.A. Anglistik/Amerikanistik Applied Studies of English module only- Dozent/in: Anette Brauer