Fascinating Fandom: The Detailed Demographics of UK Anime Fans - Amecon 2018

My most recent panel is a bit of a redux of the Minamicon panel under the same title - I knew I was in for a busy time at work in early July so my thinking was that I could just rerun the Minamicon one if I didn't get time to update it! But fortunately I did, so I restructured the data slightly for Amecon in July 2018.

I was concerned that I may have a lot of people come along who had also been to the Minamicon one so I was happy I got the time to make a new presentation, though as it turned out, almost no-one who came along had been to the Minamicon version! Another full room for this, for which I was very grateful - it was pouring with rain on the day I delivered this talk, and it clashed with the annual charity auction. It's always very encouraging to have people interested in my weird, specialist research!

The angle I went for with this was to look at how the results of my questionnaire support or dismiss the stereotypes about UK anime fandom. As someone who came into anime fandom during the '90s, when Manga Video were mainly releasing sexual and/or violent titles and the mainstream press coverage of anime bordered on a moral panic, I've been very aware of stereotypes about anime fans from the beginning so it felt like a good approach to take with this data.

Fandom, Memes and Free Cake* - Amechibi 2015

It's been a good few years, but since the last time I posted a link to something fan studies-related I had done, I've run a few more talks and panels, so I figured I should update with those!

First is "Fandom, Memes and Free Cake*", a not-really-related-to-my-study panel I ran at Amechibi in April 2015. I find meme culture terribly interesting and thought this would be a fun topic to cover in a con setting, combining some actual academic discussion with the kind of irreverence that is entirely appropriate for meme culture.

The room was packed, which was a great result, though I did slightly worry that there might not be enough cake to go around... yes, despite the meme that says the cake is always a lie, I double-bluffed everyone and provided cake at the end! Well, it was my birthday after all...

Many thanks to Tom at Team Neko for filming the panel and putting it up online.

Once I finish my MPhil I'm toying with the idea of revisiting this at a future con, and possibly writing a book. We shall see...!

The Changing Face of British Anime Fandom panel - Amecon 2012

Here's a video of my panel from Amecon 2012, held at Keele University from 10-12 August 2012. the title was "The Changing Face of British Anime Fandom" and included lots of discussion from the audience!

Many thanks to Tom and Zelly at Team Neko for filming the panel and putting it up online.