The Pop Culture Lens on Professional Wrestling Studies

For this special episode of The Pop Culture Lens, co-hosts Christopher J. Olson and I address a question they have been working on answer: why study professional wrestling? Their answers delve into the many ways that professional wrestling has impacted societies and cultures around the world to understand just how important pro-wrestling is. From the WWE […]

Introducing the Professional Wrestling Studies Association

I am writing today to announce the formation of the Professional Wrestling Studies Association. Last spring, several wrestling studies fans and scholars met at the Central States Communication Association conference in Minneapolis to discuss the formation of an organization to promote and produce professional wrestling studies. Based on this conversation, we began drafting the plan […]

Welcome to the Culture Wars

Note: I will update this post periodically as I see people using terms they may not understand, and appreciate anyone’s help to make certain I am properly translating, defining, and contextualizing terms. EDITED: Here is a great rundown of terms from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/alt-left-alt-right-glossary.html?_r=0 Feature image comes from http://www.full-stop.net/2011/08/29/features/essays/michael-schapira/how-to-master-the-culture-wars-in-two-weeks/ which shows just how long the culture […]

Job Search: Assistant Professor of Corporate Communication

Come join us at Dominican University! Source: Job Search: Assistant Professor of Corporate Communication

The Aviary

We passed by his aviary again, and again I marveled at the cacophony it exuded. The structure was a complex web of bamboo, trees, climbing ivies, and trellises. No where did I see a cage to hold any of the birds that, to my untrained eyes, had to be rare to this part of the […]

Online Relationships with Wrestlers

These are some thoughts I had in conversation with the students of my online fan studies course. We were looking at the impact of social media on fandom, and I reflected on my experience with my new fandom: professional wrestling. Source: Online Relationships with Wrestlers

The Fractured Fandom Book

My project all started with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. In 2010 a new animated series was released based on the old toy line (I had these toys as a kid). What amazed everyone is that a toy line and series meant for girls started to develop a following of adult men, who took […]

Anti-Fans and Political Public Spheres

Let me start off by saying we are not discussing “guilty pleasures” here. A guilty pleasure is when someone engages with something they know to be “bad” but they get pleasure out of doing it. So a person may feel ashamed or embarrassed about the engaging, and may do it in secret so that others […]

Fans of Trump, Fans of Jesus

To start. I want to return to the original conceptionalization of fanaticism defining fandom. So, let’s do a dive back into what this word means. Merriam-Webster defines “fanaticism” as having a “fanatic outlook or behavior.” Well, that’s not helpful, because it defines the term with a different version of it; so, what is fanatic? The […]

Customer-Fans and the Happily Exploited

Time for another story (I appear to have a lot to tell!); this time, about the experiences I had at the biggest comic book convention in the world, San Diego Comic Con International. When I graduated college, I moved to Los Angeles and ended up working at an agency that represents writers, directors and producers. […]