CFP: Panel on Fan Spaces at PCA/ACA conference, New Orleans (Apr. 1-4, 2015)

full name / name of organization: 
Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA)

As the popularity of this year's San Diego Comic Con proved, fan spaces are increasingly important culturally and financially. Media creators and producers have come to acknowledge the significance of their fans and the need to communicate with them, particularly through social media. Fans, however, also insist upon their own self-contained spaces where they can share their opinions and observations, as well as transformative and fan works, without the threat of censorship or harassment. These spaces exist both physically (as in, for example, in the form of fan conventions and fan meet ups) and virtually through social media platforms such as Tumblr, twitter, and Ao3.

I am looking for papers on virtual and physical fan spaces for a panel in the Fan Studies area at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) conference in New Orleans April 1-4, 2015. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

-virtual fan spaces including Tumblr, Archive of our Own, and fanfiction.net
-creating or delineating fan spaces
-physical fan spaces including meetups and fan conventions
-for-profit conventions such as DragonCon or SDCC
-fan run conventions such as Otakon, 221bCon, or GallifreyOne
-policing and harassment in fan spaces
-fan spaces functioning as or failing to function as "safe spaces"
-cosplay and crossplay
-language of fan spaces

Priority will be given to papers that go beyond introductory level treatment of their topics.

Submissions should be sent directly to my email (ejnielsen@northwestern.edu) and should include the author's CV, short biography (100-150 words), and abstract (100-250 words). If papers are chosen for the panel, they must be submitted to the PCA's website at http://ncp.pcaaca.org. Please indicate at that time whatever audio/visual needs you may have.

Deadline: No later than Oct. 1, 2014

PCA/ACA Conference website: http://pcaaca.org/

Email: ejnielsen@northwestern.edu