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.
TWC / SCMS Fan and Audience Studies group graduate student essay contest journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/tw...
TWC / SCMS Fan and Audience Studies group graduate student essay contest | Transformative Works and Cultures
journal.transformativeworks.org
If you're a graduate student member of SCMS and a member of the Fan and Audience Studies SIG, consider submitting to this contest for possible publication in a future issue of TWC!
SCMS Fan and Audience Studies SIG @scmsfaas.bsky.social · 3w ago📣 Announcing this year's FaAS SIG graduate essay contest! Submit your essays related to fan and audience studies, up to 7,500 words, by Aug. 31 for possible publication in @journal.transformativeworks.org. For more details and to submit: tinyurl.com/faasgradessa...
#TWC is excited to announce the publication of #TWC48, a special issue on Disability and Fandom guest edited by Olivia Johnston Riley and Lauren Rouse! Dive in at this link: rb.gy/kose15
Vol. 48 (2026): Disability and Fandom | Transformative Works and Cultures
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The Transformative Works and Cultures website will be down on Thursday, April 30, 2026, from 10am Eastern to 1pm Eastern as the Online Journal System (OJS) completes scheduled maintenance. We thank you for your patience during this time.
Did you publish an article in TWC from 2023-26? We're seeking entries for the Fans of Color Prize, which recognizes peer-reviewed research about fans and/or fandoms of color published in TWC in the preceding 3 years. There's a $500 cash prize! journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/tw...
2026 Fans of Color Research Prize | Transformative Works and Cultures
journal.transformativeworks.org
"A musician releases an electronic music album. A coder writes a horror game. An artist performs a gig, combining presequenced music with live sounds. These acts are perhaps unremarkable, yet what renders them theoretically significant is the platform...the Nintendo Game Boy." #TWC47 rb.gy/bzjo65
Enmediating a platform, enabling fandom: Accessible creation tools and new methods of production for the Game Boy | Transformative Works and Cultures
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"Because of the inherent limitations when trying to explore stories and identities that go beyond AI's biases, there is a level of additional emotional labor for reader-users who...benefit most from the transformative ability of fan fiction, namely queer creators and readers.." #TWC47
AI, gaming fandom, and reshaping the fan fiction landscape | Transformative Works and Cultures
doi.org
#TWC is excited to announce the publication of #TWC47, a special issue on Gaming Fandom guest edited by Hayley McCullough and Ashley P. Jones! Dig in at this link: rb.gy/g6ioom.
Vol. 47 (2026): Gaming Fandom | Transformative Works and Cultures
rb.gy
Researching early discussions around @transformativeworks.org & @archiveofourown.org & it’s fascinating to see how many fans hated the idea of an academic journal . . . as the person who’s been editing @journal.transformativeworks.org for years & as we’re starting to plan for our 20th anniversary
Some Great Resources for Acafannish Work – Part 1: Journals rb.gy/uh5a60
Some Great Resources for Acafannish Work – Part 1: Journals – Fanhackers
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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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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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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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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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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.”
Transformative Works and Cultures@journal.transformativeworks.org · 9mo agoIn 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:
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...
Transformative Works and Cultures@journal.transformativeworks.org · 9mo agoIn 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:
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!
Transformative Works and Cultures@journal.transformativeworks.org · 9mo agoClosing 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!
This article examines ChatGPT's biases around queer and heteronormative representation in creative writing and fanfiction. Interesting stuff!
Transformative Works and Cultures@journal.transformativeworks.org · 9mo agoNext 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 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.
Transformative Works and Cultures@journal.transformativeworks.org · 9mo agoTara 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:
@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
transformativeworks.org
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.
Transformative Works and Cultures@journal.transformativeworks.org · 9mo agoEva 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: