TWC No. 44, Centering Blackness in Fan Studies, released

Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 44, “Centering Blackness in Fan Studies”, guest edited by Alfred L. Martin Jr. and Matt Griffin. 

This issue “brings together scholars working across an array of disciplines to center Black fandom” and “responds to [a] lack of privilege shown to Black fans.” As the editors of the special issue explain:

“The articles in this issue examine Black fandoms on their own terms to examine how these audiences engage with popular culture, regardless of what the mainstream or official fandoms would say. These authors use Black fandom not as an object of comparison or a niche group but study Black fandom to understand it on its own terms. These articles seek to understand Blackness and Black fan practices as simultaneously universal and particular.”

Some examples from the issue include: 

• The (Anti)Fan Is Black: Consumption, Resistance, and Black K-Pop Fan Vigil Labor written by our inaugural Fans of Color Prize Winner!
• Black Fan Evangelism and Transactional Fan Participation Space in the Hillman Bookstore
• The onus is not on us: Race and fan studies ten years after "African American acafandom and other strangers"
• To love and to labor: The Black female fan experience

The next issue of TWC, No. 45, is a special issue on Sports Fandom and it will appear in 2025. Following that, No. 46, a general issue, will be released on September 15, 2025. 

TWC's upcoming deadlines include:

Gaming Fandom, January 1, 2025 deadline

Disability and Fandom, January 1, 2025 deadline

We accept submissions for our general issues on a rolling basis.