About This Project
Welcome to the long-suffering project that is Christina Masucci's M.A. thesis, whose full, very-long title is Dichotomy of Fan: A Snapshot of Interaction, Participation, and Belonging in Modern Fandom Culture.
There are a lot of ways I can (and have) introduced this project to people. Instead of the default Surprised-Pikachu-meme-How-Do-I-Even-Explain-This awkward pause, allow me to use past mini-projects requiring me to explain it in succinct terms that make sense... in order to make it make sense.
Research Days Abstract
Everyone is a fan of something. Everyone has their Thing—music, shows, books—that influences them, drives them, or simply puts a smile on their face throughout the day. My thesis project started as a result of fan experience—a creative piece after years of influence, interaction, and participation—but soon moved to an exploration of fandom itself. It has become a snapshot of fan communities today as both my peers—through interviews—and I—through autoethnographic accounts—have experienced them, analyzed through the theoretical discussions of researchers like Henry Jenkins and compiled in a series of vignettes (read: rants) on fandom trends, ethics, memes, and lingo.
Research Days Introductory Video
Coming soon! If I feel like it!
As my expertly crafted script for this video says, this project is the result of a steady buildup of interest in fan(dom) studies—including the actual realization that such a thing exists. That interest was essentially cultivated over the past few years of my college career. Specifically in classes that allowed for academic exploration of my creative interests. Funnily enough, those particular classes required regular blog posts, several of which I mention throughout this website. That was a drawn-out segue to essentially introduce links to those blogs.
Here you go, for your pleasurable perusal:
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Networked Narratives (Spring 2017) — Owls Are People Too
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Electronic Literature (Fall 2018) — Masooch Writes
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Networked Narratives (Spring 2019) — Owls Are People Two
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Thesis (Fall 2019 + Spring 2020) — CM's Thesis Blog
About Me
[krɪˈstiːnə məsutʃi]
she/her
94 line
Libra
Gryffindor
INFP
It's an old picture. Ya gurl has a pixie cut now.
Hello if you thought that an explanation of Me was gonna make more sense and be more succinct than those of my project... you are correct.
My name is Christina Masucci. I'm a fan of a lot of things. Those things bleed into real life more often than not. I am/was (depending on when you read this) a graduate student of Kean University.
I am a writer.
Thanks
I just wanna take a moment to thank all the people in my life who have supported me through my graduate (and undergraduate) years. Friends, family, professors, coworkers, and classmates who endured my complaints and self-deprecation. My interviewees, who played a major part here and deserve the world. Dr. Zamora, who consistently saw more in this project than I did, and helped me see it, too. This project is a mini memoir of sorts, and it (and my life, and who I am) would not be what it's become without their place in it. If that makes sense. Kinda wordy. Anyway. Thank you. I'm bad at words of gratitude (never liked greeting cards), so that's really all I feel like I can say. I hope it gets across sincerely.
For L & J, who loved stories just as much as I do.