Instructor Interview
Below, Prof. Edward Schiappa describes various aspects of how he teaches CMS.621 Fans and Fan Cultures.
OCW: For the uninitiated, what is fan studies? What disciplines does it draw on?
Edward Schiappa: Fan studies is the study of fans as active, creative participants who consume and sometimes reinterpret popular media through fan fiction, art, and communities. The course explores how fandom forms social identities, activism, and cultural production, emphasizing fans’ dynamic engagement beyond passive consumption within media cultures.
OCW: On your syllabus, you credit Henry Jenkins as having created the original version of the course. What role did he and others play in developing the subject?
Edward Schiappa: Henry Jenkins, who formerly incorporated fandom studies in various courses he taught at MIT, went on to create a class called “Fandom, Participatory Culture, and Web 2.0” after his move to USC in 2009. His student Flourish Klink, who took his class via Zoom, created the MIT version in 2011. So while CMS.621 was not actually created by Jenkins, he did create the first version that was taught at USC, and after which our CMS.621 was modeled.
The class has always been driven by exploring case studies of fandoms and fan cultures, with the instructor framing the study of those case studies with larger media, sociological, and sometimes psychological theories. All of us encourage students to blend scholarly analysis with their personal fan experiences, fostering what Jenkins called the “aca-fan” identity—a scholar who is also an active fan.
Jenkins describes his recent formulation of the class at USC in this blog post.
OCW: Two of the course sessions are set aside for students to give and receive peer feedback on their developing papers. How do you manage these sessions so that the feedback will be as substantial and meaningful as possible?
Edward Schiappa: In addition to my instructor feedback, students meet in small groups of three or four and take turns offering feedback on each others’ drafts. So each student receives feedback from multiple others. I also provide a list of “talking points” guided by the grading rubric to guide students’ readings of each others’ papers.
OCW: Each of the three assignments involves both writing a paper and presenting it to the class. What weight do you give to the written papers, relative to the presentations?
Edward Schiappa: They are actually weighted the same, though for the oral presentation, there are specific expectations about the presentation that are different from the paper, including assessment of their oral delivery, nonverbals, slide design, and the like.
OCW: What would you like to share about teaching CMS.621 that we haven’t yet addressed?
Edward Schiappa: I suspect many students are attracted to the class initially because they are excited about their own specific fandoms and look forward to being in a space where they can share their experiences. This last class offering, we had a surprising number of students who were seriously into Minecraft and were delighted to find other students who shared their passion.
But for me, the most fun assignment is the first one, where students are required to interview someone over the age of 50 about their teenage fandoms. This is typically a family member, such as a parent or grandparent. The students always report learning a lot about that family member that they had not previously known.
Curriculum Information
Prerequisites
None
Requirements Satisfied
- CMS.621 can be applied toward a major or minor in Comparative Media Studies, but is not required.
- General Institute Requirement (GIR): Humanities (HASS-H)
- General Institute Requirement (GIR): Communication Intensive in the Major (CI-M)
Offered
Most semesters
Assessment
Grade Breakdown
The students’ grades were based on the following activities:
- 10% Participation
- 30% Paper/Presentation 1
- 30% Paper/Presentation 2
- 30% Paper/Presentation 3
Student Information
Enrollment
Fewer than 10 students
Breakdown by Year
Juniors and seniors from MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley
Breakdown by Major
Various
Typical Student Background
Students in the course were not expected to have any background in media studies; most had not previously taken CMS.100 Introduction to Media Studies.
How Student Time Was Spent
During an average week, students were expected to spend 12 hours on the course, roughly divided as follows:
In Class
Met 2 times per week for 1.5 hours per session; 24 sessions total; mandatory attendance.
Out of Class
In preparation for the class sessions, students completed assigned readings and viewings, worked on the three assigned papers, and prepared for in-class presentations.
