Transformative Works and Cultures is pleased to announce Osarugue Otebele as our inaugural Fans of Color Prize award winner for her article “The (anti)fan is black: Consumption, resistance, and black K-pop fan vigil labor”! Otebele’s article will be published in TWC’s upcoming special issue “Centering Blackness in Fan Studies” on December 15th.
Read More Read more about Fans of Color Prize WinnerTransformative Works and Cultures has released general issue No. 43, edited by coeditors Poe Johnson and Mel Stanfill.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 43 releasedThis special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures will explore fan creativity as critique in gaming fandoms; while we are construing the term ‘gaming fandom’ broadly, we are primarily interested in analyses and scholarly discussions of and related to fan-made works and productions, including fanfiction, fanart, cosplay, mods, fan-made games and series, etc. We welcome all forms from methodology – quantitative and qualitative, empirical and theoretical, etc.
Read More Read more about Gaming Fandom (01/01/2025)Robert McRuer writes in Crip Theory that at some point in every person’s life, if they live long enough, they will be disabled. Yet, while disablement is an extremely common experience and ableism a hegemonic form of marginalization, disability is largely understudied across fields (Minich 2016, Ellcessor 2018). Fan studies has neglected to consistently explore disability or acknowledge the presence of ableism, resulting in a dearth of peer-reviewed publications on this intersection and a silencing of crip critique from disabled fans and scholars.
Read More Read more about Disability and Fandom (3/15/2026; 1/1/2025)The journal's hosting site will be performing a server upgrade in the coming days. Transformative Works and Cultures will likely be offline for several hours on Monday, May 27th and Wednesday, May 29th as of 9 AM PST.
Read More Read more about Upcoming Server UpgradeTransformative Works and Cultures has released No. 42, “Fandoms and Platforms”, guest edited by Maria Alberto, Effie Sapuridis, and Lesley Willard.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 42, Fandoms and Platforms, releasedTransformative Works and Cultures is now seeking submissions for the 2024 Fans of Color Research Prize.
Read More Read more about Fans of Color Research PrizeTransformative Works and Cultures’ special issue on Chinese Fandoms, guest edited by Zhen Troy Chen and Celia Lam, is out now!
Read More Read more about TWC No. 41, Chinese Fandoms, releasedTransformative Works and Cultures is pleased to announce the expansion of its editorial masthead with two new Assistant Editors and three new Symposium coeditors.
Read More Read more about TWC Expanded Masthead [Press Release]Transformative Works and Cultures has released general issue No. 40, edited by coeditors Poe Johnson and Mel Stanfill.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 40 releasedWith the proliferation of narrowcasting and niche sport-specific and fan-centered digital platforms, the mediatization of sport demands the methodological approaches and digital sensibilities of fan studies scholars. Sports studies scholars are approaching conversations about fan engagement with athletes (e.g., their rights, safety, and labor) and with the institutional structures of leagues and teams (e.g., ownership and control) with an ethical lens and a close attunement to complex power dynamics that fan studies scholars routinely deploy. There are countless possibilities for bringing sports studies and fan studies together more effectively; indeed, a sports fan donning a beloved player’s jersey, tweeting at their favorite team’s account expressing disdain about a recent scandal, or rewatching and re-editing video of a great play could be understood as a sports-specific way of engaging in cosplay, fan activism, and vidding.vvvvv
Read More Read more about Sports Fandom (3/15/2025; 1/1/2024)Unfortunately, this special issue will not be moving forward. All submitted pieces are being considered for our general issue.
This special issue seeks to address the rapidly accelerating topic of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning (ML) systems (including, but not limited to Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Large Language Models (LLMs), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and speech, image and audio recognition and generation), and their relationship to and implications for fans and fan studies. We are interested in how fans are using AI tools in novel ways as well as how fans feel about the use of these tools. From media production and marketing perspectives we are interested in how AI tools are being used to study fans, and to create new media artefacts that attract fan attention.
Read More Read more about AI and Fandom (3/15/2025; 1/1/2024)Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 39, “Trans Fandom,” guest edited by Jennifer Duggan and Angie Fazekas.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 39 releasedTransformative Works and Cultures has released general issue No. 38, the first edited by new coeditors Poe Johnson and Mel Stanfill.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 38 releasedThis special issue centers Blackness in fandom studies. For this special issue, we seek to privilege and celebrate Blackness, not as a comparative but as enough on its own. We want essays that build on the relatively small but groundbreaking scholarly work that centers Black fandoms. We encourage work that engages, nuances, and challenges this foundational work, leading to novel reconsiderations of how fan studies defines and understands Black fandoms.
Read More Read more about DEADLINE EXTENDED: Centering Blackness in Fan Studies (12/15/2024; 7/1/2023)Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 37, “Fandom Histories,” guest edited by Philipp Dominik Keidl and Abby S. Waysdorf.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 37 releasedThis special issue seeks to explore how, in the broadest sense, fans and fandom communities engage with platforms. We are particularly interested in essays that complicate a “black box” view of platforms or that engage critically with what platforms make possible for their users, as well as how and/or why. Ideally, such contributions will further understanding of how interactions among fans, fandoms, texts, and fan works are coconstitutive of the spaces in which they operate. We encourage contributions from fans as well as from fan studies scholars; we are particularly interested in works that cover or draw from global contexts.
Read More Read more about Fandoms and Platforms (3/15/2024; 1/1/2023)Transformative Works and Cultures has launched a new structure for submissions which takes effect as of issue No. 38. New co-editors Mel Stanfill and Poe Johnson expand on why they believe these changes are important and necessary to better reflect “the reality on the ground.”
Read More Read more about TWC Restructures Submission Guidelines [Press Release]"Article" replacing "Theory/Praxis" and Symposium expands word length as of No. 38.
UPCOMING ISSUES
We are happy to announce our 2021 general issue, TWC 36!
Read More Read more about New general issue TWC 36 publishedTransformative Works and Cultures is pleased to announce that Dr. Mel Stanfill and Dr. Poe Johnson will soon be joining the editorial team as coeditors.
Read More Read more about TWC New Coeditors [Press Release]This special issue seeks to widen our knowledge of trans fandom. We invite submissions that engage with trans theory as a lens for analyzing fandom, case studies of trans fans’ experiences of fandom, considerations of trans bodies in fan fiction, trans theorizations of cosplay cross-dressing, and so on. In particular, we seek work that centers trans people—that is, individuals who express their gender identities in a variety of ways, including but not limited to transgender, transsexual, nonbinary, gender fluid, genderqueer, agender, intersex, or otherwise gender nonnormative.
Read More Read more about Trans Fandom (3/15/2023; 1/1/2022)This special issue of TWC seeks papers reflecting on the changing nature of fandom in China and on the role of Chinese fans transcending national boundaries. It asks questions regarding the characteristics of Chinese fans/fans of Chinese media in the contemporary globalized media landscape, and it queries the impact that the media industry has on the formation and ongoing expression of fan cultures.
Read More Read more about Chinese Fandoms (DEADLINE EXTENDED: 12/15/23; 7/1/22)We are pleased to announce the publication of TWC 33 (2020): Fan Studies Methodologies, edited by Julia E. Largent, Milena Popova, and Elise Vist.
We are aware of various difficulties with the web site, especially the inability to download essays. For fan-created PDFs of issues, please see https://fanlore.org/wiki/Transformative_Works_and_Cultures.
UPCOMING ISSUES
The goal for this special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures is to explore the question of how fans produce knowledge about the past and actively engage with history. We are particularly interested in essays that show what fans do as historians, such as running publicly accessible archives and museums, and using archival materials for the production of nonfiction media.
Read More Read more about Fandom Histories (3/15/22; 1/1/21)We are pleased to announce the release of TWC 32 (2020): Fan Fiction and Politics, guest edited by Ashley Hinck and Amber Davisson.
UPCOMING ISSUES
We are pleased to announce the release of TWC 31 (2019): Fan Fiction and Ancient Scribal Cultures, guest edited by Frauke Uhlenbruch and Sonja Ammann.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 31 released!
We are happy to announce our 2019 general issue, TWC 30!
We are aware of various difficulties with the web site, especially the inability to download essays. For fan-created PDFs of all issues, please see https://fanlore.org/wiki/Transformative_Works_and_Cultures.
Read More Read more about New general issue TWC 30 published
This special issue seeks submissions that specifically address the pedagogical methods, styles, contributions, and concerns of the fan studies course, classroom, and online space(s).
Read More Read more about Fan Studies Pedagogies (3/15/21; 1/1/20)We are proud to announce our new issue, Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color, edited by Abigail De Kosnik and andré carrington.
Read More Read more about TWC No. 29 (2019): Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color
We are aware and working on the mobile display issue and the inability to print articles in Chrome and Safari. If you encounter other issues, do email us with your results, your device type, the name of your browser, and a screenshot if appropriate (editor AT transformativeworks.org).
Read More Read more about TWC No. 28 (2018): The Future of Fandom, special 10th anniversary issueWe are proud to release TWC issue No. 27, Tumblr and Fandom, guest edited by Lori Morimoto and Louisa Ellen Stein.
FUTURE ISSUES
This special issue of TWC explores intersections between theatrical performance and fandom.
Read More Read more about Fandom and Theatre (1/15/20; 3/15/21)Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), ISSN 1941-2258, is an online-only Diamond Open Access publication of the nonprofit Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). TWC abides by the OTW Terms of Service, which explain why and how we collect, use, and process information that you provide to us. TWC uses the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
