Res Gestae

Creating a fandom via YouTube

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
May 01, 2012 – 05:54

I just got my copy of the book my Verbotene Liebe essay appears in! Check out the pretty cover.

My article is in part 2, “Constructing Identity in an Online, Cross-cultural World.” Here’s the full citation info.

Hellekson, Karen. 2012. Creating a fandom via YouTube: Verbotene Liebe and fansubbing. In New media literacies and participatory popular culture across borders, edited by Bronwyn T. Williams and Amy A. Zenger, 180–92. New York: Routledge.... read more »

TWC No. 9 Fan/Remix Video

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
March 15, 2012 – 08:21

Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 9, Fan/Remix Video, guest edited by Francesca Coppa and Julie Levin Russo. This vid- and image-heavy issue makes good use of the multimedia components of an online-only environment.... read more »

Best SF this year!

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
January 09, 2012 – 19:32

The best SF I’ve seen this year—and admittedly it’s January 9, so there’s some time left in 2012 to go—has to be the opening credits of the 2011 David Fincher film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The imagery is drawn from the three books in the Millennium series. But it’s an incredible articulation of the melding of body and machine; in it, the heroine is seen not to be born, but rather forged:... read more »

On style

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
November 27, 2011 – 21:51

Life has taken a backseat to editing work, which has kept me either gainfully employed or insanely busy–whichever. Same thing. Within the past 3 months, I’ve switched to doing mostly book work, because it pays better than journal work, although this has occasioned its own bumps. Notably, authors, hi, don’t know if you know this, but if you don’t return the work, I DON’T GET PAID. So, um, if you could return those corrections, that would be great!... read more »

On being copyedited

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
August 06, 2011 – 12:17

A bunch of my academically employed Facebook/Twitter/social media du jour friends posted a link to an interesting article over at the Chronicle: Shame in Academic Writing. It’s all about how academics secretly think that their writing is terrible, and it makes them sad. This quote from a poor advisee sums it up:

“Is it normal,” he asked in a small voice, “to feel stupid after getting an edited manuscript back?”

Answer: Yes. Why, yes.... read more »

DOIs and URLs

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
August 05, 2011 – 05:08

I recently received an e-mail from the DOI folks announcing that the styling doi:10.3983/twc.2011.0271 (with the doi: prefix run into the DOI number) may be replaced with the actual URL that the DOI links to—in this case, http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2011.0271. This is big news indeed! But it is news that is unlikely to result in immediate action on anybody’s part.... read more »

MiT7 on the horizon

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
May 11, 2011 – 16:09

I leave tomorrow for the Media in Transition 7 conference, the theme of which is Unstable Platforms: The Promise and Peril of Transition. My paper is called Academic Journals Online, and in a move that will surprise no one, I will talk about (among other things) Transformative Works and Cultures, the online-only Open Access Gold fan studies journal I coedit with Kristina Busse.... read more »

American remakes of British television

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
April 20, 2011 – 10:07

It’s out! Carlen Lavigne and Heather Marcovitch edited American Remakes of British Television: Transformations and Mistranslations, and I just received my contributor copy. My essay is entitled “Memory and the 1996 American Remake of Doctor Who.” Other TV shows discussed in the volume include American Idol, Cracker, What Not to Wear, Queer as Folk, The Office, Life on Mars, and Steptoe and Son. The essays are divided into three sections: Methods and Mechanics, Personal and Political, and Text and Context.... read more »

OTW March 2011 drive

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
March 27, 2011 – 14:24

What I do for OTW: I coedit the OTW’s academic journal, Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC).... read more »

ICFA 32

by Karen Hellekson — Independent Scholar
March 21, 2011 – 16:31

ICFA 32 just ended! I gave a paper entitled “Fandom kerfuffles as expressions of agency.” (I’m sure you noticed that I do not have a subtitle.) I assess fandom kerfuffles, and I used as my example Strikethrough ’07. I argue that kerfuffles are an important way for members of the fan community (broadly conceived) to exert collective agency. This agency may or may not result in change, but regardless, fans, through a process of consensus, come to act as moral agents who exert agency and impose value judgments.... read more »