Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide (Fandom & Culture)

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.I enjoyed the practical aspects of this book tremendously. The mix between scholarship and practical classroom experiences was slightly heavier on scholarship than I had been hoping; however, the student response chapters made up for it. It was very helpful to read student responses to fandom studies and related assignments, both positive and negative. I will definitely refer back to these chapters as I adapt teaching ideas and assignments to fit the needs of my students and curriculum. I appreciated that the ideas in Fandom as Classroom Practice were oriented to college classrooms. I finished the book feeling invigorated and inspired to change up an assignment or two in my own classes in the near future.

As both a scholar and a fan, I've read many sociological and psychological studies on fan culture. However, this book expands that study into how fan culture and the methods fans employ can be used in the classroom from a pedagogical perspective. The series of articles provide a fresh approach to teaching methods, and I was particularly excited by the out-of-the-box techniques of using fan-vidding, Tumblr, and writing fanfiction to explore texts. What really set this book apart from others, though, was the student reactions to the methods that were included in each chapter. It is easy to present a new technique and hypothesize about the benefits, but the students' reactions showed how these techniques can be used to expand student understanding and engagement in real-world ways.