@LizaPottsDirector of WIDE Research Center and Associate Professor

Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures

The Sign of Three in Fandoms:Fan Memory of Sherlock/Holmes Fans in London

Participatory Memory

Participatory Memory =

Participatory Culture +

Collective Memory

Investigating physical and digital

public spaces of memory,

celebration, and reflection

created

by / for fans

Participatory Memory Projects

Learning from fandoms in spaces they inhabit

Understanding the Experience of Fans in these Spaces

Examining the Three Stages of Fan Activity

How / Where We Do Our Research

Exploring Spaces of Fan Participatory Memory

Studying At/With Through Fan Cons

Learning Through Study Abroad

2016 Study Abroad Focused on Cultures and Storytelling (fandom)

2013-16 College of Arts & Letters Undergraduate Research Initiative

2014 Research Study Abroad to London / Paris

Kelly Turner, Emily Dallaire, Katie Grimes, Lizzie Oderkirk, Shell Little

Student Researchers Are A Key Part of WIDE’s Work

Ah, but Sherlock…Holmes?

Three Stages of Fandom as observed in

Participatory Memory sites

Speaking to Producers

Acknowledging Each Other

Making Fiction, Art, Artifacts, Orgs

Fan Site Visits from 2003-2016

Participatory Memory: Stage 1

Fans Speaking to Producers

“Public commemoration is a form of history-making, yet, it can

also be a contested form of remembrance in which cultural

memories slide through and into each other, merging and then

disengaging in a narrative triangle”

- Marita Sturken in “The Wall, the Screen, and the Image: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial” from the Visual Cultural Reader, Ed. Mirzoeff, Routledge 1998.

Stage 1: Fans Speaking to Producers

Participatory Memory: Stage 2

Fans Acknowledging Each Other

“Memory – relating past and present – is thus the central faculty of

being in time, through which we define individual and collective

selves”

- Jeffrey K. Olic, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, and Daniel Levy in “Introduction” from

the Collective Memory Reader, Oxford 2011.

Stage 2: Fans Acknowledging Each Other

Stage 2: Fans Acknowledging Each Other

Participatory Memory: Stage 3

Fans Making Fiction, Art, Artifacts, Organizations

“It is only through narrative that we know ourselves as active

entities that operate through time”

- H. Porter Abbott in The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative 2002.

Stage 3: Fans Making, Organizing

Stage 3: Fans Making, Organizing

Thank you!

Liza PottsAssociate Professor and Director of WIDE Research Center

Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures

Michigan State University, Michigan, U.S.A.lpotts@msu.edu @LizaPotts

Scholarship: Digital Projects

Undergraduate Researchers (and grads!):

Emily Dallaire, Kelly Turner, Katie Grimes

Significance

Egg

Toast

Plate Field(s) of Study

Phenomenon / Example

Big, Generalizable Idea

Experience Architecture,

Internet Studies, Fan Studies

What happens when participatory culture

and collective memory collide across

physical and digital spaces

Doctor Who/Torchwood,

Sherlock, Harry Potter, Princess Di

Michigan

State

University's

WIDE

Research

Center

Our Projects:

Participatory and Visible

Intentionally Inclusive

Oriented Towards Social Justice

in our Research, Methods, and

Making