Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of December! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website

As this will be the final Events Calendar post of the year we'd like to encourage everyone to submit events for 2014 as our calendar's looking a little bare!

In addition to face-to-face events we are also open to entries about online events, such as announcements of fanwork fests and challenges, as well as our usual categories of fan-related conventions, academic or technology events.

New ideas and categories are encouraged! If you know about any upcoming fan events please let us know!

• Con+Alt+Delete is a brand new anime convention in Chicago, Illinois! C+A+D is happening December 13-15, 2013 at the Sheraton Hotel in Lisle, Illinois. If you love Hetalia, Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh, Lolita Fashion, Homestuck, My Little Pony, Sci-Fi, or Video Games this is the event for you. Cosplay is encouraged!
• If you are looking to supports charities, such as Toys for Tots and to attend a holiday themed anime, comic and cosplay convention look no further than Holiday Matsuri in Orlando, FL on Dec 13-15.
• Comic Fiesta is Malaysia’s largest and longest-running animation, comics and games convention. Comic Fiesta is the first and biggest non-profit convention of its kind in Malaysia, organised by a group of passionate individuals brought together by one common goal, and powered by a massive community of professionals, amateurs and enthusiasts of all age groups. It's being held 21–22 December 2013 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
• A holiday that has worked its way into several fandoms (and built up one of its own), Festivus, will once again be celebrated worldwide on December 23rd. Originally created by Daniel O'Keefe in the 1960s, the holiday gained mainstream popularity after being featured on the television sitcom Seinfeld.

  More about Festivs on Fanlore

We have one call for papers for December

• Lunds University is hosting the Producers and Audiences, International conference 2014 They are looking for submission in the three areas of enquiry in media, communication and cultural studies: relations between producers and audiences; theories, methods and practices; and creative content for contemporary mediascapes. 300 word abstracts in English are due by December 9th 2013.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the events calendar throughout the year!

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of October! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• Festivids is a yearly small-fandom giftvid exchange. It's modeled on Yuletide; every vidder signs up with fandoms they request, and fandoms they can offer. Each vidder receives a secret assignment and makes a giftvid for their recipient. The vids are posted anonymously in January, and after two weeks, the identities of the vidders are revealed.
  Signups to participate run from October 10 through October 20.

  More about Festivids on Fanlore

We have six calls for papers this month.

• Loncon 3 is looking for academic papers to reflect the history and population of London, the host city. The theme of the academic programme is ‘Diversity’. We will be exploring science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all forms of speculative fiction, whether in novels, comics, television, and movies or in fanworks, art, radio plays, games, advertising, and music. Submissions are due 1 October 2013 with notification by 31 December 2013. A 300 word abstract should be sent to emma.england[at]loncon3.org.
• International Journal of Audience Research: “Masters of the Universe: World-Building and World-Exploring is interested in a mapping of specific communities and their rich relationships with world-building. Any medium (or combination thereof) that engages with story-worlds and world-building: examples include prose fiction, comic books, TV, film, theme parks. Proposals will be considered depending upon their validity for audience studies. Abstracts of 350 words are to be forwarded by October 31st, 2013.
• In the contemporary media landscape the fan is an active player who participates, creates and collaborates in the construction of any type of media content. Through a multidisciplinary approach to Fandom Studies,V Congreso Internacional Latina de Comuncación Social in Tenerife, Spain aims to explore questions such as: What is the role of fans in the commercial communication of brands? In which ways can the fandom of a particular fictional work contribute to the expansion of the original text? What types of works and sources are used by fans in order to construct their own messages? The deadline for the submission of abstracts is the 31st October, 2013. If you are interested, please send a 300-word abstract with your name and university affiliation to jlozano@uloyola.es.
• This special issue of Journal of Fandom Studies responds to the well-established and global subculture of fans of Korean popular music (K-pop) and Korean television drama (K-drama) and seeks to examine the uniqueness of K-pop and K-drama fandoms and their contribution to global fandom scholarship. Deadline for submission of Abstracts is 31 October 2013. For more information see the Call for Papers.
• SW Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference is looking for papers on any aspect of stardom or fandom and also, specifically on topics related to Doctor Who and Torchwood. Deadline for 250 word proposals is November 1st.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the events calendar throughout the year!

Welcome to our Events Calendar roundup for the month of June! The Events Calendar can be found on the OTW website and is open to submissions by anyone with news of an event. These can be viewed by event type, such as Academic Events, Fan Gatherings, Legal Events, OTW Events, or Technology Events taking place around the world.

• Slash fans in Australia are gathering in Sydney this weekend for the annual Sinpozium. Sinpozium is a laid-back fan gathering where what happens is up to those who attend. Activities include discussions, fandom pimping, games, vid watching, and more.
  Read and Share about Sinpozium on Fanlore
• The Ada Initiative, an organization dedicated to supporting the participation of women in open technology and culture, will be holding AdaCamp San Francisco on June 8 & 9. The camp brings women together to build community and to discuss issues women face across open technology and culture and ways to address them.
• Starfury Conventions is hosting a three-day celebration of Matt Smith's tenure as the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham from June 28 to June 30. Return to the 11th Hour will feature special guests, panels, photo opportunities, autograph sessions and more.
  Read and Share about Return to the 11th Hour on Fanlore

We have two calls for papers this month.

The first comes from the Children and Childhood Studies Area of the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association. The call is for proposals for paper presentations, panels, round tables, and alternative format presentations for the annual MAPACA conference in November 2013. The area is looking for topics related to the impact of popular culture on children and the role of children and young adults in creating and impacting American culture. Studies involving adult fans of work that is considered "for children" are also very welcome. Proposals consisting of 300-word abstracts should be submitted via the MAPACA website no later than 14 June 2013. Proposals in other areas of popular culture are also welcome.

The second call is for a special issue of New Media & Society focusing on crowdfunding. The issue seeks to explore a variety of issues and perspectives surrounding crowdfunding, ranging from the practice itself to the role of funders and fans (the audience) and producers of crowdfunded content. Proposals are invited on topics including, but not limited to:

- Case studies of crowdfunding campaigns
- Fandom
- Unsuccessful crowdfunding efforts
- The role of the internet and social media in crowdfunding
- Producer/funder relationships
- Crowd funding in the music, film, television and games industries
- Anti-fandom
- The role of auteurs and cult names/media in attracting backers
- Fan exploitation and labour
- Rewards and producer accountability

Abstract proposals (400 words) are due, along with an author biography, 20 June 2013. Proposals should be sent to bennettlucyk[at]gmail.com, bertha.chin[at]gmail.com, and bethanvjones[at]hotmail.com. Selected articles will be due on January 2014.

The OTW encourages anyone to submit an event that's not already listed, and to check out the calendar throughout the year!

• At Slate, Tammy Oler lauds writer Hugh Howey's approach to dealing with fans in a piece discussing the success of his self-published sci-fi novel. "Most intriguingly, Howey has encouraged readers who want to develop their own Wool stories to self-publish and sell their works. In an interview, I asked Howey about why he’s not just encouraging fan fiction but actually endorsing it. 'There’s room for readers to become writers and play in this world,' he said. 'I view fan fiction as the opportunity to teach readers how much joy there is in creating worlds instead of just living in them.' Right now—much to Simon and Schuster’s chagrin, one has to imagine—the first two of what are sure to be many Wool-related fan fiction stories are available for sale on Amazon."
• BookRiot hosted a guest piece by writer Jill Guccini who pondered how to evaluate professional/fan collaborations. "So here’s the question: Is this unbelievably cool and innovative? Or is it simply, as the AV Club called it, 'a dizzying cycle of mutual promotion and self-promotion?' Can it be both? Fandom is a more sprawling, often intimate, force now than it ever has been before in every variety of the arts, including books. I used to know authors simply by, you know, what books they wrote; I now gauge a lot of them in my head unwittingly by their social media personalities. And sometimes they reblog the same things I reblog; sometimes they follow me back; and they become weirdly closer, somehow, to That Guy I Went to High School With, as opposed to The All Mysterious Author. Essentially: the fourth wall has already been broken. So does authors reaching out to fans enrich the literary world? Or does it cheapen it? Alternately, does a corporate-sponsored, preconceived interactive project still count as 'reaching out'?"
• Aja Romano over at the Daily Dot is also concerned about how fans are valued in these interactions, and writes about the way they are spoken of in SXSW panel blurbs. "[F]andom itself is growing to be synonymous with geek culture as a whole—both of which are seeping inexorably into the mainstream. That’s a huge reversal from where things stood even a few years ago, and not everyone is quite on board with this change. We can see this anxiety in the very language two of this week’s SXSW panels use to summarize the fan/creator relationship." Questioning the panelists on 'Frenemies: Fanning the Flames of Fandom' and 'Creators vs Audience: Next Chapter in Storyteling', she notes "the introductory angle that both panels take seem to pit fans and creators against one another, rather than as potential partners in a relationship built around shared love for a story."

Share your own stories about fan and creator collaborations on Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.