In which the grad student babbles on and on
I think I sort of disappeared there for two weeks. I didn't, but I did. The semester here at UW started again, and it always throws me off just a little because it can be difficult to get back into the swing of classes after nearly a month off of school. This was my second winter break here, and it still seems like an adjustment from my undergraduate days because Wellesley's break is about two weeks longer to accommodate Wintersession. I kept thinking I needed two more weeks without classes to really be ready to go back.
Thankfully this semester I'm taking two classes and a colloquium class instead of three seminars, and I can tell already that the workload is significantly less. Since I managed to overwork myself quite badly last semester, this is a very good thing. I'm taking a communication arts class in which we are going to make a film, as well as a class on textiles of the Americas which my advisor is teaching. Both seem like they will be intellectually challenging while giving me enough breathing space to finish my thesis without too many sleepless nights. While I felt like my brain was in constant overdrive last semester from all of the reading, I really did learn a lot, and I would do it again if I had the choice, I probably wouldn't have chosen the semester I needed to work on my proposal for the ideal time to work quite so hard on coursework.
But that is not actually what I wanted to blog about today. I just finished reading an article for my com arts class, a book chapter from People Studying People (Georges and Jones 1980) that was about how different anthropologists and folklorists came to doing field work, and it inspired me to write a little bit about how I came upon my masters thesis topic. I explained this a few times recently to friends in my department who are working on their own topics and proposals, and I thought writing it here would be a useful exercise in thinking about why studying fandom and craft is so important to me.
I've been involved in fandom for a long time, mostly as a lurker. I was first exposed to X-Files fandom when I met my best friend at summer camp in 1998, and the first thing she asked me when she met me was "Do you like X-Files?" and when I said yes, she responded with "Are you a shipper or a noromo?"
At the time, I hadn't heard of either of these terms, nor did I have a home computer or any notion of online fandom. Online fandom itself was still in a fairly nascent stage compared to what it is now on LiveJournal, DreamWidth, JournalFen, InsaneJournal and elsewhere, and still revolved around listservs and email lists and fanbuilt sites. One of my own very first attempts at html was building an X-Files fansite using a terribly twee username and the dearly departed geocities.com. At the time I didn't realize that what I was engaging in had a history going back at least as far as Star Trek: TOS and the Man from U.N.C.L.E, that fandom was made up of mostly women, that X-Files would be one of the definitive cult shows and fangroups. I just had a friend who liked X-Files as much as (if not more than) I did. I eventually discovered the rest of fandom when my parents bought a computer in 2000, and later I discovered slash and yahoo groups. I didn't discover LiveJournal until I began college in 2002, but once there I never really left, and it's probably still my most visited site (besides google and probably fark.com). In college I took a class on Internet Cultures and wrote my term paper on slash fanfic and realized how far back fandom actually went.
When I started my graduate work I discovered material culture and object study, neither of which had crossed my path as an undergraduate focusing in Medieval Christianity and Philosophy. I began to look at objects differently, and realized that one of the things that I really wanted to study was handicrafts. I had originally decided on focusing on Victorian Medievalism, but I'd had an idea to write a conference paper on fandom craft simmering in the back of my brain for a little while when I attended a grad student symposium last March on objects as interfaces. I had no real idea of what this meant, until I realized that one of the things that fascinated me about fan craft, besides it being something I had made all my life without thinking about it, was that people were making objects and sharing them online. Physical things like hogwarts scarves and Jayne hats, like replicas of John's sweater from Sherlock or Tetris themed quilts. These were all being made, all incorporating aspects of fandom and pop culture and craft, and I couldn't find any research on it. Nothing. And so I decided I wanted to look at it. I've never considered myself to be very creative. My mother and sister are the family artists, and my grandmother always calls herself a capable crafter but never an artist. My father embroiders exquisite satin stitch pieces but calls himself a technician rather than an artist. I make things, usually knitted or polymer clay things, or wire things, but they're always based on something else. They're nearly always practical things. I also study things, and studying fan craft and its amazing connection to fan culture, indie culture, geek culture, and pop culture is incredibly fascinating and something I'm finding incredibly rewarding.
Thankfully this semester I'm taking two classes and a colloquium class instead of three seminars, and I can tell already that the workload is significantly less. Since I managed to overwork myself quite badly last semester, this is a very good thing. I'm taking a communication arts class in which we are going to make a film, as well as a class on textiles of the Americas which my advisor is teaching. Both seem like they will be intellectually challenging while giving me enough breathing space to finish my thesis without too many sleepless nights. While I felt like my brain was in constant overdrive last semester from all of the reading, I really did learn a lot, and I would do it again if I had the choice, I probably wouldn't have chosen the semester I needed to work on my proposal for the ideal time to work quite so hard on coursework.
But that is not actually what I wanted to blog about today. I just finished reading an article for my com arts class, a book chapter from People Studying People (Georges and Jones 1980) that was about how different anthropologists and folklorists came to doing field work, and it inspired me to write a little bit about how I came upon my masters thesis topic. I explained this a few times recently to friends in my department who are working on their own topics and proposals, and I thought writing it here would be a useful exercise in thinking about why studying fandom and craft is so important to me.
I've been involved in fandom for a long time, mostly as a lurker. I was first exposed to X-Files fandom when I met my best friend at summer camp in 1998, and the first thing she asked me when she met me was "Do you like X-Files?" and when I said yes, she responded with "Are you a shipper or a noromo?"
At the time, I hadn't heard of either of these terms, nor did I have a home computer or any notion of online fandom. Online fandom itself was still in a fairly nascent stage compared to what it is now on LiveJournal, DreamWidth, JournalFen, InsaneJournal and elsewhere, and still revolved around listservs and email lists and fanbuilt sites. One of my own very first attempts at html was building an X-Files fansite using a terribly twee username and the dearly departed geocities.com. At the time I didn't realize that what I was engaging in had a history going back at least as far as Star Trek: TOS and the Man from U.N.C.L.E, that fandom was made up of mostly women, that X-Files would be one of the definitive cult shows and fangroups. I just had a friend who liked X-Files as much as (if not more than) I did. I eventually discovered the rest of fandom when my parents bought a computer in 2000, and later I discovered slash and yahoo groups. I didn't discover LiveJournal until I began college in 2002, but once there I never really left, and it's probably still my most visited site (besides google and probably fark.com). In college I took a class on Internet Cultures and wrote my term paper on slash fanfic and realized how far back fandom actually went.
When I started my graduate work I discovered material culture and object study, neither of which had crossed my path as an undergraduate focusing in Medieval Christianity and Philosophy. I began to look at objects differently, and realized that one of the things that I really wanted to study was handicrafts. I had originally decided on focusing on Victorian Medievalism, but I'd had an idea to write a conference paper on fandom craft simmering in the back of my brain for a little while when I attended a grad student symposium last March on objects as interfaces. I had no real idea of what this meant, until I realized that one of the things that fascinated me about fan craft, besides it being something I had made all my life without thinking about it, was that people were making objects and sharing them online. Physical things like hogwarts scarves and Jayne hats, like replicas of John's sweater from Sherlock or Tetris themed quilts. These were all being made, all incorporating aspects of fandom and pop culture and craft, and I couldn't find any research on it. Nothing. And so I decided I wanted to look at it. I've never considered myself to be very creative. My mother and sister are the family artists, and my grandmother always calls herself a capable crafter but never an artist. My father embroiders exquisite satin stitch pieces but calls himself a technician rather than an artist. I make things, usually knitted or polymer clay things, or wire things, but they're always based on something else. They're nearly always practical things. I also study things, and studying fan craft and its amazing connection to fan culture, indie culture, geek culture, and pop culture is incredibly fascinating and something I'm finding incredibly rewarding.