#my thesis

[castielchitaqua]

the full spectrum of hollanov thirds:

- obsessed with both of them on an incredibly psychosexual level (luca haas)

- obsessed with only one of them in a way that makes them need to be involved just to get it out of their mind. can become sex by proxy if we play with it (hayden / cliff)

- so aroused by the combined hockey skills that they need to experience that once or twice. for the sake of fun (carter / svetlana)

[manology]

[nilsfred]

They've put my thesis in the institutional repository

Oh my god oh my god oh my god. Guys. This is so exciting. I am a ball of hype.

Okay – so – ahem. There is this academic field called fan studies. I've just finished a master's degree and my final thesis was in that field. (Technically, my field is LIS, library and information science. Don't worry, it overlaps.) Today, my university uploaded my thesis to the institutional repository, so now everyone can read it! It's right there! Look! LOOK AT IT I'm so proud!

TL;DR:

This study looks into a group of Good Omens fans' opinions about AO3's search and tagging systems, and also talks about their thoughts about fandom overall. Specifically, I wanted to figure out whether things like amount of time using AO3, experience using other fanfiction sites, level of comfort with AO3's tagging system, or experience in LIS/librarianship or IT make any difference to a person's opinions about search and tagging on AO3. (There were no strong correlations in my data, but there were plenty of interesting qualitative observations to talk about.) I also looked at how, exactly, people go about searching AO3 in practice, what features they like to use, what things trip them up, and so on, using a fun method from the computer science field of human–computer interaction.

If you're a long-time user of AO3, the results of this study might not surprise you, but you might still be interested in the background and previous research chapters (a bit of background on the field of fan studies, a little AO3 history, what's so special about AO3's tagging system, and a tiny little bit of nitty-gritty about how its search and browse features work, for example). There's also a section in the discussion chapter about the social and community aspects of fandom (section 6.6), which I find pretty heart-warming.

By the way: All the data collection – the survey and interviews this study is based on – was done before the Good Omens finale came out. There is absolutely nothing in here about the finale. You are safe from that debate.

Abstract for the academics:

Several studies within the field of fan studies have examined fans’ attitudes to the curated folksonomy (tagging system) and search features of fanfiction archive Archive of Our Own (AO3). However, factors affecting these attitudes have not been studied extensively, and despite the conceptual proximity to the field of human–computer interaction (HCI), existing research employing HCI methods in fan studies is limited. Using a mixed-methods approach, this exploratory study collects its data from a survey, two interviews, and three condensed contextual inquiry sessions. The survey uses a modified end-user satisfaction instrument to determine attitudes to AO3 search, comparing this to certain types of academic, professional, and fandom-related experience. Weak correlations are found between search satisfaction and familiarity with the tagging system, search satisfaction and experience using other fanwork platforms, and academic or professional experience in IT or LIS and confidence using the tagging system. Contextual and qualitative content analysis suggest fans both appreciate and are confused by AO3’s interface and that AO3 performs well on exploratory searches but falls short on specific lookups. Previous findings on fans’ attitudes to AO3’s tagging system and its effects on search are also corroborated. This study adds to the literature about attitudes to searching and tagging on AO3 and demonstrates how HCI methods can benefit the fan studies field. Future research might use contextual inquiry or the search satisfaction scale developed here to study AO3 usage, or consider the meaning of these findings for questions in LIS more broadly. Keywords: Information practices, fan studies, folksonomies, information retrieval, surveys, condensed contextual inquiry, end-user satisfaction, Archive of Our Own

(Can I tag @transformativeworks here? Is that okay? Hello OTW! This is (kind of) research about you! You can look at it if you like!)

[slamfinal]

Euripides, The Bacchae.

[nousxpige]

CAN ANYONE HEAR ME. HELLO. CAN ANYONE HEAR ME. IS THIS THING ON.

IS ANYONE LISTENING

[belleandsaintsebastian]

JUST FINISHED MY THESIS PROPOSAL DRAFT YIPPEE!!!!!!!

[celestialvoid-fanfiction]

For those interested, my thesis is on the representation of nonverbalism and non-speaking characters in young adult literature. I had such high hopes when I started out, but had to reign in the scope of my work to just novels, but I'm looking at how nonverbalism is treated in literature.

I'm studying metanarratives (when a trope, stereotype or role becomes the defining idea about the person with a certain trait--like how blindness is associated with the stereotype of the blind beggar).

Some of the most common metanarratives of nonverbalism include...

Nonverbalism being associated with stupidity in characters such as Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Spike in The Land Before Time.

Silent villains like Feathers McGraw in Wallace and Gromit, Murmur from the Flash comics, and the Mute from Teen Wolf (which is where the thesis and fanfiction intersect because in the Prey/Teen Wolf Hunger Games AU series that I wrote, I tried to write him as not the villain).

Nonverbal characters being confined to the roles of sidekicks and background characters like Gromit in Wallace and Gromit,

Nonverbal characters being servants, mutilation of the tongue as punishment or control, and nonverbal characters being considered less-than-human or expendable. Such as the Avoxes in the Hunger Games series.

and the nonverbal character either being killed off, cured (and able to talk again), or removed from the story (either their story has no resolution because they disappear or they are exiled from society). The only way for a nonverbal character to achieve a happy ending is by speaking/being cured, or - if they can't be cured - finding a new sense of self-worth and self esteem in the face of adversity. Bullying and discrimination go unchallenged; it's up to the disabled character to adapt.

I also look at characters that were changed or removed from remakes, retellings, and adaptations--such as Dopey in the 2025 remake of Snow White being able to talk; Cassandra Cain (Batgirl) being nonverbal in many of the comics but talks in Birds of Prey (2020); Lavinia and Darius being two avoxes who have very powerful roles in the Hunger Games novels but are absent in the movies; and many more.

Finally, I argue for ways which authors and the industry can change in order to stop the cycle of misrepresentation and discrimination.

I can talk a whole lot more about it and have done presentations on it (there is unfortunately a Youtube video of me presenting my thesis for a conference, but it's just a video of my face). So if aanyone's interested or wants to know more, I'd love to talk about it!

DISCLOSURE: I am disabled. I am not nonverbal but my youngest niece was diagnosed with delayed speech development and for several years did not talk. Everyone in my family kept telling my niece she had to speak and I kept arguing that she had to communicate--she could use sign language or pictures or some alternative means of communication.

I thought up this argument for my thesis when I finished my honours degree back in 2018 but put it off because a PhD sounded terrifying, but after what happened with my niece, I decided I was going to do the PhD.

[k0m0r3biii]

mytruth: matt isnt insecure about himself, hes insecure about his relationship to jay. he doesnt think negative things about himself but he cannot trust that jay doesnt either. and jay can never prove that he doesnt because matt is too worried about it to let him