FAN STUDIES

The Fan Studies Area, formerly Fan Culture & Theory, of the PCA welcomes papers, presentations, panels, and roundtable discussions that cover all aspects of fandom for inclusion at the PCA National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on April 8-11, 2026. The conference proposal system will be opening to submissions on Sept. 1, 2025. Please see the pcaaca.org website for more information on submitting your proposals.

The area was started in 2009 by the late Katherine Larsen and has grown in size and depth in the years since. Fan Studies as a discipline has similarly evolved from a media-focused discourse to one that widely engages with text, performance, history, and material culture.

The Fan Studies Area of the PCA offers a venue for fan scholars from across the globe to share their research and exchange ideas on this growing field. Papers on all of the many aspects of the topic are invited. The following list of past and possible topics is extensive but not exhaustive:

• Fan activism
• Anti-Fandom and Toxic Fandom
• Fan collections in archives and libraries
• Collecting, collectors, collections
• Conventions
• Cosplay
• Fan/creator, consumer/producer interactions
• Fan crafts
• Fans as critics
• Disability
• Ethics and responsibilities of academics working within fan studies
• Fan fiction
• Food
• Gaming - video games, table top RPG, board games
• Gender and Sexuality
• Global fan cultures and practices
• Historical perspectives on fans and fan studies
• Kitbashing, customizing, prop replicas
• Pedagogy, teaching fan studies
• Politics
• Issues of race within fan communities as well as in the discipline of Fan Studies
• Reality Television Fandom
• Re-enactors, Renaissance faires and festivals, playtrons, living history
• Social media and fandom
• Specific book, comics, film, television, and music fandoms
• Specific theories and case studies
• Sports fandom
• Theater
• Fan videos and films
• Virtual and online conventions, fan gatherings, and group watching
• Fan tourism and pilgrimages

This call asks for individual paper proposals or submissions for entire panels. If you are submitting a panel, please make sure to note the members of your panel. In addition to general papers, if a presenter would like to propose a special panel or roundtable discussion, please e-mail the chairs.

For individual papers, please submit abstracts of approximately 250 words and a short bio (100 words). Submissions will only be accepted through the PCA website.

Panel proposals should be submitted directly to the area chair for approval (see contact information below). Include an abstract (250 words) describing the panel, accompanied by the abstracts of the individual papers that comprise the panel. Once the panel is approved, individual presenters should submit their proposals through the PCA website.

Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals.

Individuals must be current, paid members to submit to the conference.

Contact information for the chairs:

Cait Coker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, cait@illinois.edu

Victoria Godwin, Prairie View A&M University, vlgodwin@pvamu.edu

We also encourage those interested to follow the Fan Studies/Theory/Culture Area at PCA group on Facebook.