Transformative Works and Cultures
journal.transformativeworks.org
Transformative Works and Cultures
@journal.transformativeworks.org
Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works.
The deadline is approaching for 2(!) upcoming special issues CFPs! Both Music Fandom and Latin American Fandoms have a January 1st submission deadline--don't miss your chance! Find more information on our front page:
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December 12, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Closing out #TWC46 is Fiona Katie Haborak's review of Elizabeth Affuso & @iheartfatapollo.bsky.social's edited collection, "Sartorial Fandom"! Read the full review here:
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December 10, 2025 at 7:27 PM
For #TWC46, @katiedidnt.bsky.social reviewed @tbaudinette.bsky.social's "Boys love media in Thailand"! Morrissey states that Baudinette "asks [us] to problematize [our] assumptions about queer media, embrace ambiguity, & resist older theoretical frameworks". Read the review here:
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December 8, 2025 at 2:27 PM
#TWC46 also reintroduces our Multimedia section as a space for nontextual contributions! Here, Kelsey Wildman Stokes presents an interview with Brannon Carty, the director of the fan documentary An Unlikely Fandom: The Impact of Thomas the Tank Engine. Read it today:
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December 5, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Next, Robert S. Santucci's "Polyphemus ❤️ Acis: The conduit in Ovid's Metamorphoses" applies the conduit, a motif from fan fiction, to offer a reparative reading of Ovid's story. Read it in #TWC46:
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December 3, 2025 at 7:27 PM
The first Symposium piece in #TWC46 comes to us from Sidnee Lim! In "Queer time and space in genderqueering fancams #transpeterparkeredit," Lim explores how fans use fan edits and fancams to reimagine characters as genderqueer! Read here:
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December 1, 2025 at 7:27 PM
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An incredible, must-read piece! “Whether end products created by AI hold legitimate creative value is, in our view, irrelevant here; our concern is with systems of power and their relationship to fan cultures.”
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:
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November 19, 2025 at 2:41 PM
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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:
buff.ly
November 21, 2025 at 6:58 PM
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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!
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November 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
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!
buff.ly
November 21, 2025 at 2:27 PM
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:
buff.ly
November 19, 2025 at 2:27 PM
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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:
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November 12, 2025 at 9:34 PM
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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:
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November 12, 2025 at 9:36 PM
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@journal.transformativeworks.org published an amazing fanzine on the theme of friendships in fandoms. It's really nice to read about what is, essentially, the core and result of many fandoms ! You can read it for free on their website : www.transformativeworks.org/fandom-frien...
#zine #fandom
Fandom Friendships: A Zine | Organization for Transformative Works
www.transformativeworks.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:10 PM
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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:
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November 14, 2025 at 2:58 PM
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:
buff.ly
November 14, 2025 at 2:27 PM
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:
buff.ly
November 12, 2025 at 7:27 PM
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:
buff.ly
November 11, 2025 at 2:27 PM
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oooo, you want to be edited by these two, they are wonderful! <3
Opening #TWC46's New Currents on Fans and AI, guest editors @suzannerblack.bsky.social & @ladylark.bsky.social identify potential areas of disruption to contemporary fandom & fan studies arising from AI and suggest what the consequences might be. Read the editorial here:
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November 5, 2025 at 2:56 PM
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Our account doesn't and will not promote AI fanworks or fanarts, as we value human made works of art. But if you want to know more the place of AI in fandoms, this editorial is a nice gateway to this subject ! #fanfic #fandom
Opening #TWC46's New Currents on Fans and AI, guest editors @suzannerblack.bsky.social & @ladylark.bsky.social identify potential areas of disruption to contemporary fandom & fan studies arising from AI and suggest what the consequences might be. Read the editorial here:
buff.ly
November 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM
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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:
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November 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
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:
buff.ly
November 7, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Opening #TWC46's New Currents on Fans and AI, guest editors @suzannerblack.bsky.social & @ladylark.bsky.social identify potential areas of disruption to contemporary fandom & fan studies arising from AI and suggest what the consequences might be. Read the editorial here:
buff.ly
November 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
#TWC46 features our first ever section titled New Currents! This section collects articles on new topics or approaches at a smaller scale than a special issue. In this issue, New Currents focuses on how fans and fan studies scholars engage with AI as a tool for transformative engagement! Stay tuned!
November 3, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming to share some horror-related articles from our Archive!
October 31, 2025 at 6:27 PM