Call for Chapter Proposals

Deadline: August 15, 2025

Editors: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, Linda Howell, and Jessica Hautsch 

In the wake of the 2024 American presidential campaigns and election, this book seeks to explore the current American political situation from the perspective of fan studies. The goal of this collection is to understand the conditions, processes, objects, people, and institutions of contemporary democracies for their overlaps with fans, fandoms, and fan communities. The collection seeks to answer this question: can fan studies help us understand political experience and expression within American democracy and, if so, what led to, is involved in, and impacted by this understanding?

A political fandom occurs when fannish behaviors, both external and internal, operate in relation with a traditional political entity or process. Political fandoms have emerged in the 21st century as politics have increasingly become mediated and celebritized, with the emergence of Trump and the MAGA movement as, perhaps, the inevitable expression of the intersection between politics, mass media, and celebrity culture. These observations are also not unique to fan scholars, as journalists have begun to question the extent to which political campaigns and politicians have begun to interact with voters and constituents as fans. Journalists and political analysts have even begun to use fannish terms like “cosplay” in their discussion of the second Trump Administration. This collection, then, seeks to explore and understand how fandom concepts occur in contemporary democratic processes and institutions. 

Understanding political fandoms means utilizing both the affective and cognitive aspects of fandom to illuminate the personal, social, and political actions of networked citizen-as-fans. We hope this book will theorize the nature of the citizen-as-fan and the development of political fandoms, analyze the actions that constitute and maintain political fandoms, and understand the implications of political fandoms and citizens-as-fans for the world and people’s everyday lives and, through these implications, to offer warnings and suggestions for the future.  

Thus, the purpose of this book is both an analysis of the current state of politics in the United States and a consideration of what the future may hold for this Ameri-fan experiment.

We are seeking chapter proposals from various methodological, disciplinary, and ideological perspectives to help us explore current American politics from a fan studies perspective. Our hope is to produce a collection of interest outside of academia, as such a general interest book may be of vital importance at this time.

The chapters can be empirical studies, case studies, theoretical explorations, philosophical musings, and/or conceptual explorations that seek to answer the question above. Thus, the chapters can be of variable length, from 2000-8000 words, including references (likely a footnotes system). Possible topics for these chapters includes, but are not limited to:

•   Applications of fan studies concepts and theories to political sphere (e.g., MAGA merch and memes)
  
•   Relationships between emotions, fandom, and political attitudes and actions (e.g., patriotism)
  
•   Relationships between ideology, politics, popular culture and fandom (e.g., Aaron Rodgers)
  
•   Fandoms that interconnect popular culture, celebrities and politics (e.g., Joe Rogan)
  
•   Indoctrination into political ideology through popular culture fandoms (e.g., UFC)
  
•   Canons, fanons, and head canons in political fandoms
  
•   Fannish rhetoric in political sphere
  
•   Co-optation of fannish behaviors by political movements
  
•   Overlaps in psychology of fandom and politics
  
•   Overlaps in political economics of fandom and politics
  
•   Historical perspective on the relationship between politics and fandom
  
•   Ethical considerations associated with political fandom and citizen-as-fan conceptualizations
  
•   Suggestions for how to handle this current political situation
  

This list is not comprehensive, as it reflects our perspectives, and the goal of the anthology is to bring together a variety of perspectives. Additionally, ideas can be combined in whatever way you feel illuminates this current moment.

We will write the introduction chapter to set a conceptual foundation for the collection, and we will provide a conclusion chapter that comments on the throughlines and connections among the chapters as well as recommendations for future actions for fans, fan scholars, citizens-as-fans, and citizens.

The number of accepted proposals depends on the variety of topics received and the desired lengths of those proposed chapters. Right now, we anticipate the anthology’s overall word count to be 100,000-200,000.

Chapter proposals are due by August 15, 2025. Proposals should be sent to carrielynn.reinhard@gmail.com and include the following: Title; 3-5 keywords; 300-500 word abstract that covers chapter’s topic, approach taken, purpose of the work, significance of the work; Proposed length of the chapter (between 2000-8000 words); Contact information

The current timeline for the project is:

• 8/15/25: Proposals due
  
• 9/15/25: Proposal acceptances notified
  
• 11/15/25: Finalize contract with publisher (several currently interested)
  
• 2/28/26: Chapter first drafts due
  
• 4/30/26: Internal peer review complete
  
• 7/30/26: Chapter final drafts due
  
• 9/30/26: Manuscript sent to publisher