Dr Suzanne Black
Into Contemporary Literature, Digital Humanities & Fan Studies.
Postdoctoral Researcher, CoSTAR Foresight Lab, University of Edinburgh; views my own.
she/her
Please don't DM me - I can't access them anymore.
- I have an friend who is trying to research textiles/textile history in relation to libraries (e.g. the history of textile related community groups/activities in library spaces). Does anyone have any suggestions for books / journals? @quinnanya.me - I thought you might know?
- Jing Bai's exploration of Japanese fandom otaku communities treats thinking about the incursion of gen AI into fan activities as a consideration of the information seeking and organisation practices of humans. Thought-provoking stuff!
- Closing out our Fans & AI section, Jing Bai asks us to reconsider the relationships between humans and AI in "Otaku and AI: Reconsidering human, machine, and animal"! Read their Symposium piece in #TWC46 today!
- Irissa Cisternino & Rebecca Radillo do a great job of laying out the stakes for creativity, especially fan creativity, in the wake of gen AI. They ask what it means to outsource 'labors of love' to a tool, a similar question asked by @elizabethminkel.bsky.social in ellipsus.com/blog/generat...
- In a New Currents symposium, Irissa Cisternino & Rebecca Radillo ask us to consider major questions about how generative AI problematizes existing power structures in and around fandom in #TWC46! Read their piece here:
- My first monograph, 'Between Novel and Network: Technology and Literary Form in Fiction and Fanfiction', will be published by @lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026! It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory. See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
- This is such a great article by Eva Cheuk-Yin Li & Ka-Wei Pang about a specific incident in fandom in which discourse around AI deepfakes was weaponised by fans. Beyond the incident itself, it offers a thoughtful example of how to engage with fandom incidents with care and respect.
- Eva Cheuk-Yin Li & Ka-Wei Pang close out the New Currents Articles with ""This is a deepfake!": Celebrity scandals, parodic deepfakes, and a critically speculative ethics of care for fandom research in the age of artificial intelligence"! Read it in #TWC46:
- This article by Tara Heimberger delves further into the popular fan activity of creating, sharing and interacting with characters chat bots, and places this activity in a contimuum of creative and immersive fan practices.
- Tara Heimberger moves beyond static fan fiction to examine immersive character chatbots that allow fans to carry out a conversation with fan objects in "Character.AI and the quest for immersion in fan fiction practices" for #TWC46! Read it now:
- This article examines ChatGPT's biases around queer and heteronormative representation in creative writing and fanfiction. Interesting stuff!
- Next in New Currents, @drtlwagner.bsky.social & Alison Harding use traditional analyses to examine work created using generative AI in ""Remember, love knows no boundaries and comes in many forms": The conceptualization of queerness within AI-generated fan works"! Read it in #TWC46:
- This article by @julianeugarten.bsky.social is a fascinating glimpse into fanfiction responding to Ancient Greek mythology as well as a meditation on the suitability of specific digital methods for analysing fanfic, emphasising the importance of close reading in computational literary studies 👀📖
- In #TWC46's first New Currents article, @julianeugarten.bsky.social explores the potential of a suite of natural language processing and machine learning tools to examine power and gender dynamics in fan fiction featuring characters from Greek mythology! Read it here:
- I have a new essay out on the CRAIC site as part of a larger piece of work around data-led approaches in the creative industries. I hope you enjoy it! craic.lboro.ac.uk/essays/captu... @designinf.bsky.social @melissaterras.bsky.social @lborouniversity.bsky.social
- My lovely friend Naomi Jacobs (@ladylark.bsky.social) and I wanted to explore the repercussions of the new-found prevalence of AI on fans, fandom and fan studies. Some excellent scholars contributed articles to a special section of @journal.transformativeworks.org, which is out now! Enjoy!
- I'm really excited that a collection of fascinating work on fandom, fans and AI that @suzannerblack.bsky.social and I co-edited is out today in the new volume of @journal.transformativeworks.org - and as the journal's first 'New Currents' section! Read our editorial here doi.org/10.3983/twc....
- I must have some Xena fans here - help a researcher out with this survey:
- Please take this online survey to help me understand Xena fans and the relationship of the fandom to the makers of the show. #xena, #xenawarriorprincess, #xwp Share with anyone who might be interested! ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
- Do you watch TV? Please take this survey to help me understand what audiences think of TV production techniques. app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/... Please share widely, and thanks in advance. #FanStudies #AudienceResearch
- @thetvfestival.bsky.social Would you mind sharing this survey about TV audiences with your followers? I would love to reach as many people as possible.
- Let's try this again. New research from myself and my lovely colleagues about dealing with unexpected AI when collecting research data:
- I'm pleased to share that Louise Connelly, @suzannerblack.bsky.social, @melissaterras.bsky.social & my 'Guidance for Research Ethics Committees and Researchers on Designing Research in the Age of AI' is out now under CC license: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Read, share onwards and give us your feedback!
