Academishia

You meet all types in fandom, and that includes professors. Not that I would know anything about that.

If you’re curious, here are some blogs where various academic-types keep up with fannish life. . .

If you’re into media studies/humanties/literary criticism/ethnographic approaches, a few places to start:

MIT (a place near and dear to some Jade hearts) is home to Henry Jenkins, known for his work in fandom media studies.

Kristina Busse and Karen Helleckson are independent scholars. Translating out of academic-ese, that means that they both have Ph.D.s (in English, I believe) but don’t have a current university post. They’ve edited a book on fanfic, fan communities, and the net.

Terranova is about MMOPRGs and social networks. Interesting mix of social scientists, computer scientists, and industry people.

Curious about the intersection between intellectual property law and fandom? Rebecca Tushnet is a law professor at Georgetown.

Like money? Check out Metanomics. The site goes with a seminar course being taught this semester at Cornell’s Johnson School. Like TerraNova, it’s focused on MMOPRGs and other VR environments. Guest speakers lecture on “in game” monetary policy, how they make a living in fashion design for Second Life avatars, etc. And the lectures are delivered in Second Life, with a video archive available for anybody who wants to just surf by and watch.