Call for Abstracts -- Fandom | Cultures | Research, Issue 1/25

Fandom | Cultures | Research is the first international journal based in Germany for scholarship in the fields of Fan, Audience, Media, and Cultural (Data) Studies. With its different formats – ranging from full papers to reviews, conference reports, and data papers –  the journal fosters academic discussion across these disciplines, especially regarding methodological questions: Each issue will consist of double-blind peer-reviewed full papers, alongside with an editorially reviewed section consisting of data papers (data sets and complementary text), reviews, conference reports, and a “Method Lab” section with shorter papers and interviews that provide insight into work-in-progress, methodological challenges, as well as best practices. Other creative format
suggestions are also welcome. Furthermore, we invite themed guest sections for every issue.

Cultural interaction and participation in their myriad forms – from critical and affirmative audience responses to civic engagement and consumer activism – have become highly mediatised phenomena taking place in both analogue and digital spheres. Accordingly, doing research in the fields of Participation and Fan Studies requires a sensibility for media-specific contexts and a diverse set of methodological tools adapted to them. It also benefits a lot from interdisciplinary cooperation and discourse. The journal aims to foster synergies between all disciplines interested in fan phenomena, e.g., Media and Communication Studies, Sociology, and Digital Humanities among others, and invites contributions focusing on a wide range of fan cultural and civic practices, mainstream as well as niche identities and media. It is especially interested in digital platforms and infrastructures as frameworks for a diverse range of cultural practices and as a home to many fan, brand, and other communities.

Fandom | Cultures | Research is an openly accessible (Diamond OA), bilingual online journal (English/German), published via the open access repository media/rep/ aiming to establish an innovative platform to further develop the understanding of situated cultural practice and ultimately, to negotiate the methodological foundations of their investigation.

We welcome a variety of topics and critical approaches including, but not limited to the following:

Peer-reviewed full papers and themed sections:

• Fandom and cultural participation in an era of platformization
• Community responses to the crises of our times: climate change, pandemic aftermath, war
• New and old questions of power, exploitation, and dependency in (fan)cultural spheres
• Modes and formats of ,following’
• Celebrity culture(s) online
• Networked political activism
• Cultural industries and cultural participation
• Forms and expressions of (online) fan creativity

Editorially reviewed section:

• Methodological and ethical reflections: ,best practices’ and ,lessons learned’
• Data papers: data sets explained in context
• Conference reports
• Book reviews

Note by the editors: In the spirit of dismantling institutional hierarchies, we want to encourage early career researchers – who often have unique access to online niches and communities and thus produce highly relevant work – to publish their findings with us (even if it is only in the form of a shorter paper, review, or a data set). Please note that we also provide the opportunity to publish papers in English or in German to make the publishing process easier for you.

Editors: Vera Cuntz-Leng (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Sophie G. Einwächter (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Anne Ganzert (Universität Konstanz), Vanessa Ossa (Technische Hochschule Köln)

in cooperation with Dominika Ciesielska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków), Kaya Mogge (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Elsa-Margareta Venzmer (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), and the Fan and Participation Studies workgroup of the German Society for Media Studies (GfM)

Language: Bilingual, English/German

Publishing mode and quality management: Peer-reviewed section for articles; editorially reviewed section
for method lab and data papers as well as conference reports and reviews. Biannual publication, OA via
media/rep/

Please send your proposals (working title, abstract of max. 300 words, short biography) in an open file format (.docx, .rtf, or .odt) as an email attachment to fcr-journal@uni-marburg.deby June 1st, 2024                                                                                             

Full papers are due on January 1st, 2025

Other contributions (data papers, reviews, conference reports) are due on March 1st, 2025

FANDOM | CULTURES | RESEARCH

Philipps-Universität Marburg

Institut für Medienwissenschaft

Wilhelm-Röpke-Straße 6A

D-35039 Marburg

(+49) 6421 28 255 87

                  fcr-journal@uni-marburg.de (submissions)

editors-fcr-journal@uni-marburg.de (general inquiries)

https://partizipafans.wordpress.com/journal-fcr