In the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at UNNC, we have a great many research-active academics who lecture about creative topics from all around the world. One of our schools – the School of International Communications – has three professors who have all published books in the past year: Associate Professor Dr. Mary J. Ainslie, Assistant Professor Dr. Celia Lam and Assistant Professor Dr. Wyatt Moss Wellington. We caught up with Celia to ask her about her research and her future plans.
Dr. Celia Lam
Please tell us about your new book!
The book is called ‘Aussie Fans: Uniquely Placed in Global Popular Culture’, and is a collection of chapters about Australian fandom by Australian and International scholars. It is published by one of the leading publishers in fan studies, University of Iowa Press.
What inspired you to write about this topic?
The opportunity came about because I was attending an academic conference on Fan Studies to present some of my latest work. I met a number of scholars who were also from Australia we started talking about the fact that very few books focused on Australian fandom. Later, a representative from the publisher contacted me asking if I was interested in publishing my work as a book with them. I felt that there was not enough material in the work I presented for a book, so proposed a collection instead. They were very happy with the idea and the rest is history.
How did you conduct the research?
The book was a collection of works, so the first task was to write a call for papers inviting people to send ideas to us (I co-edited the book with a colleague). The call for papers need to be clear about the aims of the book and the specific perspectives on Australian fandom we wanted to explore. We provided a list of potential topics and waited to see who responded. We received many submissions and identified the ones that best matched the aim of the book. We then formed thematic sections based on the submissions, including a chapter we wrote ourselves. The publisher had final authority over the structure of the book, so after some negotiation, a final collection of 12 chapters was accepted for publication.
What support did you receive in your research?
The network of scholars I met at the Fan Studies conference were very supportive. They helped me to circulate the call for papers among their own networks, and submitted chapter ideas themselves. We also had the support of fan studies and digital media scholars, Dr Bertha Chin and Dr Tama Leaver who endorsed the book and helped to publicize it when it was released.
What are your future research plans now?
I have caught the book writing bug! My next projects are both books: a second edited volume on fame and fandom for University of Iowa Press; and a co-authored book on celebrity bromances for Routledge. I am particularly pleased to be working on the Routledge book as it is a topic that I am very excited to exploring in book form, having previously published shorter journal articles in the same area.
Finally, what is your advice to students who would like to study and research in your topic?
Find something that you are passionate about exploring. Research requires time and the development of many different skills, from time management to people management to reading, reflecting and writing! So, make sure that you are willing to submerge yourself in the topic and think about it from many different angles. The majority of my research is done by examining texts, so developing a way to manage your developing thoughts about the texts is vital! I still use spreadsheets because I am old fashioned, but there are many software options I am willing to explore.