After participating in discussions with other film and media studies scholars via social media, I was invited to contribute a piece to a special issue of the open-access media studies journal FLOW. The journal was conceived in 2004 with the stated goal of fostering open discussions between media scholars, media professionals, and the non-academic public, and has developed into one of the most influential new media studies publications of the last ten years. My article, submitted to a special issue on what media studies scholars term “Aca-Fandom,” centered on the tendency of recent media studies scholarship to treat fan practices as inherently valuable, despite the very real existence of fan practices that engage in symbolic and even material violence.

It is available for review HERE.