Youth, Fan Vids, & Participatory Culture

This was an invited talk for the Children, Childhood and Youth Program and the Institute of Research for Digital Literacies (IRDL) at York University focusing on fan vids and youth participatory culture. The talk centred on an article I co-authored with Dr. Abigail Shabtay and Katelyn Conferido, recently (2024) published in Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures.

Transmedia Marketing & Fan Practices

I presented this lecture as a video and then live Q&A session via Zoom with Dr. Lauren Beck’s VMCS1201: Introduction to Visual Culture class at Mount Allison University, Winter 2021. The main focus of the lecture was an introduction to fan practices and their role in marketing campaigns. I used examples from my dissertation on the marketing campaign of The Hunger Games as the main examples.

Fandom & Fantasy

This was a 3-hour in-person lecture/seminar provided for Dr. Abigail Shabtay’s CCT4145: Fantasy & Children’s Culture course at York University, Winter 2019. As this lecture was provided in-person, the attached PDF is less of a transcript of the lecture and more of guiding notes and important points connected to the slides. While introducing the students to fans and fan studies, I was also interested in connecting fan practices to their course material. The students had prepared for the class by exploring fan art on DeviantArt and preparing questions for me regarding sources and topics for their upcoming final papers.

“Hills Like White Elephants”

This lecture was provided for Dr. Kiki Benzon’s ENGL1900: Introduction to Literary Studies course at the University of Lethbridge, Winter 2014. The intention was to lay out some background information for the students while also opening the table for discussion. Here I only have the slides from the lecture as it was a long time ago, but also because of the nature of the course and the desire for discussion of the literature.

Fans & Advertising

This short guest lecture was provided as a video for Dr. Natalie Coulter’s COMN3701: Advertising, Culture & Society course at York University, Winter 2020. Here the focus was on fans and advertising with some discussion of the ways in which children and youth fans make use of material objects that aren’t always considered fan practices. I also used this opportunity to discuss some of my ideas surrounding Michael Warner’s counter public/public and concept and how that applies to the mainstreaming of fans through marketing campaigns.

Fans & the Female Gaze

This was another three hour lecture with discussion for Mary Grace Lao’s COMN3517: Doing Bodies/Doing Technology course at York University. For this course I was interested in making a connection between fan practices and Laura Mulvey’s concept of the male gaze. After introducing students to the basic concepts of fan practices I spent some time discussing fanvids and introduced the idea of the “female gaze.” Finally, we discussed the concepts we had covered in the lecture and in the readings through a comparison of Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s (1974) Carrie with Kimberly Peirce’s 2013 adaptation of Carrie.

The Power of the Fangirl Keynote

I was an invited keynote speaker for one of the Toronto Film and Media Seminars as part of TIFF’s Higher Learning Program in the Fall of 2019. This presentation was organized, in part, by Dr. Natalie Coulter as part of a larger conversation on Girls’ Studies held at York University. With this in mind, my talk focused on the young girl fan of The Hunger Games and the ways in which the media industry is engaging these fans through their marketing campaigns.

Introduction to Slaughterhouse Five

Here again I only have the slides for this lecture that I provided for Dr. Kiki Benzon’s ENGL1900: Introduction to Literary Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Winter 2014. In addition to an introduction to the novel, I was also tasked with reviewing key assignments and a pop quiz during this session.

The Beauty of the Husband

This course was also built around discussion of literature. During this lecture provided for Dr. Daniel P. O’Donnell’s ENGL1900: Introduction to Literary Studies course at the University of Lethbridge (Winter 2013) I gave the students a bit of background information to offer them some context for the reading before we would dig into their analyses of its form, function, and meaning.