The Media Studies program is excited to present Spark, a series of virtual talks on Zoom featuring inspiring local artists, scholars, and performers in the field of media studies! This intimate and interactive series will spark your imagination, spark new perspectives, and spark important dialogues in the ever evolving and diverse discipline that is media. Each talk will be followed with a Q&A segment where you will have the opportunity to ask the speakers your questions.
With each talk’s theme connected to Media Studies in its unique way, you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to discover, and see how the theory and knowledge you have learned, and are continuing to learn in your courses impact, contribute, and change the world.
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On October 28, join us for the first of this series with a talk by Tamao Nakahara, a fan cultures media studies scholar and organizer of Developer Relations and Developer Experience events for about 15 years for her talk called “Fans and Communities across Industries.”
Title: Fans and Communities across Industries
Tamao Nakahara (UC Berkeley) will discuss research and applications of fan cultures: academic research of fan cultures around media such as film and television, and the application of fan culture knowledge to building technology communities, a field called “Developer Relations” (for pay!).
Tamao Nakahara’s work has covered how fans engage with props, costumes, and sets in films, how artifacts such as 1970s Italian sex comedies can help scholars to recognize and archive instances of gender being expressed in “plentiful” ways, as well as the roles of camp and play in films that often receive the tag, “cult.” Tamao also has been running Developer Relations and Developer Experience teams and events for about 15 years. This entails working for technology companies where we grow the community of users by appreciating the fans.
This event series is free, but please RSVP for our first talk by Tamao Nakhara below by Monday, October 26, 2020 to retrieve your Zoom link to attend.