Mobilities of Passion: Tracing Affective Resonances in an Acafandom Classroom

• In Event: Play and Role-Play: Pleasure, Affect, and Living Texts

Abstract

In this study of an urban public school classroom designed to bring together fandom and academic literacy practices, the authors took a transliteracies approach to collaboratively trace how this class sustained affective resonances (Philips & Lund, 2019) identified by historically vulnerable youth. Focusing on the youth-selected text Grey’s Anatomy, we found that students encountered barriers such as gatekeeping from oldtimer fans as well as disinterest from newcomers which in some cases stemmed from hierarchies around taste and gender stereotypes. However, affective resonances were sustained through recasting oldtimer fans as teachers and newcomers as learners, reframing disinterest as literary critique, and teacher support for identity-linked scholarship encouraging students to enter and transform fandom discourses.

Authors

• Karis Michelle Jones, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

• Scott Storm, New York University