Does anyone know any good graduate programs for studying science fiction and/or fan studies (specifically cosplay)? My list so far is:
English @ University of British Columbia
Comparative Media Studies @ MIT
Department of Modern Culture and Media @ Brown
MPhil in Audience and Fan Studies @ Cardiff University
English @ University of Toronto
English @ University of Kansas
Any suggestions?
Just pulling a few from my brain here… You may also want to check out: Northwestern’s Screen Cultures track (I think it’s in the media/film dept?); UT: Austin’s Department of Radio-TV-Film; UW-Milwaukee’s English Dept (look at the media track); NYU’s Media Ecology program; Georgetown’s Communication, Culture, Tech program (although they may be moving away from this stuff); BGSU’s Popular Culture track.
Since this post mentions sci-fi, you may want check out where the major sc-ifi lit libraries or media archives are housed. (I’m pretty sure there’s a big one somewhere in the UCs. Riverside maybe?)
Overall, I think its useful to keep in mind that fan studies is interdisciplinary. So, technically, you can study fans in many different places and in many different ways. Spectatorship/reception/audiences are studied all over the humanities and social sciences. I think part of the trick is to figure out which broader discipline you either want to be using as your disciplinary lens into fans/audiences (if you’re looking at a MA) or which area you’d prefer to teach in (if you’re looking at a phd).