Posts in Transformative Works and Cultures

Transformative Works and Cultures has released general issue No. 49, edited by co-editors Poe Johnson and Mel Stanfill. Our annual general issue includes 11 full essays, eight Symposium essays, and three book reviews. These include: “Every demented detail I could ask for has been rendered”: On fan-made media and celebrating the affordances of the action figure Tags on Archive of Our Own as genderfucked technology Clickbait, clout, and collapse: The life cycle of the antifan economy From the Canadian shack to the Canadian cottage: Heated Rivalry as slash Fandom for us, by us: The pleasures and practices of Black audiences, by Alfred L. Martin, Jr.

Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 48, a special issue on Disability and Fandom guest edited by Olivia Johnston Riley and Lauren Rouse. The essays in this special issue focus on disability both as a marginalised identity and as a critical scholarly approach to fandom and fan studies. It is a rich collection, featuring theory, case studies, and fannish meta on a broad array of issues and fandoms; there is also a review of Katherine Andersen Howell’s Disability and Fandom (U. Iowa, 2025). Other articles include: Contemplating the Neuroaffirmative Potential of Fandom Studies Digital Disability Aesthetics: Queer-Disabled Practices in Oral Notfic Fan fiction, disability,… Read more

Transformative Works and Cultures has released Issue No. 47, a special issue on Gaming Fandom guest edited by Hayley McCullough and Ashley P. Jones. Essays in this issue explore fan creativity in gaming fandoms and discuss a number of fan-made works and productions, including fanfiction, fanart, cosplay, mods, and fan-made games. Each issue includes articles representing theory, fannish meta, and book reviews, such as: Video game modifications as an extension of Jameson’s postmodernism: The case of Fallout: London The power of queer: Reimagining sexuality of female characters in “Genshin Impact” Slash fiction to mainstream: An analysis of strategies used for queering characters in League of… Read more

Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 46! In the opening editorial of this issue, the editors explain that the journal is focused on diversifying fan studies by diversifying “the scholarly grounds upon which we do our work” to work against “the existence of a sort of canon of fan studies scholarship”. Over the last year, the editors goal has been to “make room for the fandom killjoys (Pande 2018) and troublemakers who can unsettle those foundations” and this general issue continues to engage with that work. Each issue includes articles representing theory, fannish meta, and book reviews, such as the following: Disordered eating, disordered… Read more

Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 45, a special issue on Sports Fandoms, guest edited by Jason Kido Lopez and Lori Kido Lopez. This issue “explore[s] both unconventional sports fan objects and underexamined sports fan expressions.” As the editors of the special issue explain: “When sports fandom is understood from the center outward, hegemonic assumptions about who fans are and how they engage with sports often go unquestioned. By shifting our focus to the boundaries, we uncover insights that complicate and expand our understanding of sports fandom as a whole. With this approach, this issue demonstrates that the intersections of sport, media, and fandom… Read more