Scholar Showcase Dialogue
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T Special Issue: H E P O P U L A R INDEPENDENT C U L T U R LAR E SCHO S T U D Showcase I E S J O U R Volume 8 N A Number 2.5 L September 2020 POPULAR CULTURE STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 8 NUMBER 2.5 2020 Editor Lead Copy Editor CARRIELYNN D. REINHARD AMY DREES Dominican University Northwest State Community College Managing Editor Associate Copy Editor JULIA LARGENT AMANDA KONKLE McPherson College Georgia Southern University Associate Editor Associate Copy Editor GARRET L. CASTLEBERRY PETER CULLEN BRYAN Mid-America Christian University The Pennsylvania State University Associate Editor Reviews Editor MALYNNDA JOHNSON CHRISTOPHER J. OLSON Indiana State University University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Associate Editor Assistant Reviews Editor KATHLEEN TURNER LEDGERWOOD SARAH PAWLAK STANLEY Lincoln University Marquette University Associate Editor Graphics Editor RUTH ANN JONES ETHAN CHITTY Michigan State University Purdue University Please visit the PCSJ at: mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal. Popular Culture Studies Journal is the official journal of the Midwest Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association (MPCA/ACA), ISSN 2691-8617. Copyright © 2020 MPCA. All rights reserved. MPCA/ACA, 421 W. Huron St Unit 1304, Chicago, IL 60654 EDITORIAL BOARD CORTNEY BARKO KATIE WILSON PAUL BOOTH West Virginia University University of Louisville DePaul University AMANDA PICHE CARYN NEUMANN ALLISON R. LEVIN Ryerson University Miami University Webster University ZACHARY MATUSHESKI BRADY SIMENSON CARLOS MORRISON Ohio State University Northern Illinois University Alabama State University KATHLEEN KOLLMAN RAYMOND SCHUCK ROBIN HERSHKOWITZ Bowling Green State Bowling Green State Bowling Green State University University University JUDITH FATHALLAH KATIE FREDRICKS KIT MEDJESKY Solent University Rutgers University University of Findlay JESSE KAVADLO ANGELA M. NELSON Maryville University, St. Bowling Green State Louis University ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Independent Scholar Showcase Dialogue .............................................................. 1 ZÉLIE ASAVA, SIMON BACON, MONICA GERAFFO, JASON KAHLER, NICOLE MARGHEIM, SCOTT MANNING, PATRICK CALEB SMITH, AND PENNY WICKSON WITH CARRIELYNN D. REINHARD SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLES: Independent Scholar Showcase “We Couldn’t Do This Without You”: Filmmaker Labor in Collaborating and Co-Creating with Audiences ................................................. 15 JODI COOPER Role-Playing Games as Art: An Examination of Dungeons & Dragons to Determine If RPGs Qualify as Art .............................................. 33 ROBERT S. SULLIVAN “No Tears Left to Cry”: Analyzing Space and Place of the Rock Concert Memorial ........................................................................................ 47 MICHELLE PAUKEN CROMER ARTICLES: Student Showcase #PutYourSticksOut: Public Expressions of Grief on Twitter About the Humboldt Broncos Accident ............................................................... 67 TERILEE EDWARDS-HEWITT The Misrepresentation of Representation: In Defense of Regional Storytelling in Netflix’s The New Legends of Monkey ........................ 91 KATE McEACHEN REGULAR ARTICLES The Paranoia of Popular Culture: Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Music Videos ................................................................................................. 107 JACOB W. GLAZIER iii The Timeliness of Hamilton: An American Musical .......................................... 126 ERIKA ARIVETT Jae Jarrell: Do-It-Yourself (D.I.Y.) Design for the Revolution ....................... 145 KRISTIN L. ELLSWORTH ABOUT THE JOURNAL ............................................................................. 157 iv Independent Scholar Showcase Dialogue ZÉLIE ASAVA, SIMON BACON, MONICA GERAFFO, JASON KAHLER, NICOLE MARGHEIM, SCOTT MANNING, PATRICK CALEB SMITH, AND PENNY WICKSON WITH CARRIELYNN D. REINHARD Introduction When we did not receive many submissions for our Independent Scholar Showcase, I worried that we would not have enough material for an issue on this topic. Luckily, we were approached to host the special issue on Black popular culture, which allowed this Showcase to become a supplement for that special issue. Yet even with this fortuitous event, I still thought we needed the opportunity to hear more from independent scholars. Especially now, amid a global pandemic that has laid bare the tenuousness of our current academic system. Academic labor is rarely properly compensated. For example, all the editors of this journal are volunteers. For the vast majority of full-time academics, any research and scholarship exist outside of their salary, as it is focused on instruction and service to their institution. At my institution, I receive support in the form of travel reimbursement for conference presentations as well as grants I could apply for to support my work. I am immensely fortunate in that regard, as increasingly my colleagues and peers report such financial support being taken away by their administrations. Such support, however, has no direct correlation with the amount of labor I engage in to complete such work. Writing articles, book chapters, books, reviews, and other means of research communication all fall under more of an affective labor: we do it because we love to do it. For many, it may be the reason we pushed ourselves into and through a PhD program. Aside from the scant royalties a book may provide, however we do not receive financial renumeration. We do the work for our C.V.s and the promise of promotion and possibly tenure provided we work enough. All that is true only for tenure-track faculty, and tenure is increasingly a tenuous promise, taken away by Boards of Trustees looking for cost-cutting measures. Other full-time faculty do not have the same promises, however tenuous, and contingent faculty such as adjuncts (whose numbers continue to grow) have no such The Popular Culture Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2.5 Copyright © 2020 1 2 Asava et al. promises—except that adding to their C.V. may lead to full-time employment. Even then, adjuncts can still claim to be employed in their desired field, if they went to graduate school to be employed in higher education. Independent scholars may not be employed in their desired field; and, even if they are, it may be in an aspect of higher education or some other field that provides no financial support or promises related to their research and scholarship. While they may have physically and financially left academia and higher education, the desire for participating in scholarly conversations through their original contributions still exists. That fire for exploring, collecting, analyzing, understanding, and explaining still burns, and the only fuel they possess to feed it comes from themselves, from their own financial and energy reserves, with no higher education institution there to replenish even a small part of it. Their voices matter every bit as much as the voices of researchers at high level research institutions who receive millions in federal grants and corporate partnerships. Academia is not specific to any bricks-and-mortar institution. It cannot, and should not, be contained within ivy-league halls and ivory towers. The “true academic” is not the researcher at the R1 bringing in huge grants; the “true academic” is the person fueled by the desire to explore, discover, understand, and explain. Though how can we ensure that? The goal with this dialogue among independent scholars is to start the conversation to answer that question. I structured the dialogue around several questions, each with their own thread on Slack for people to engage with asynchronously. Those questions and their answers are presented here as an interactive document. You can click on the question you are interested in to read how the eight independent scholars reacted to it. After reading through these discussions, dear PCSJ community, I ask you to consider and discuss this question: what can we do to support these scholarly minds and ensure they are not lost? To continue this dialogue, please engage us on Twitter @ThePCSJ by using #Academia4All to address how we can better restructure academia to be inclusive of all voices from all backgrounds. CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, PCSJ Editor Independent Scholar Showcase 3 Question List Biographies “What is your perception of the current state of academia?” “What advice would you offer to other independent scholars?” “What do you see as the benefits to being an independent scholar?” “What do you see as the drawbacks to being an independent scholar?” “What helps you to complete your research on popular culture?” “What hinders your research into popular culture studies?” “If you could wave a magic wand, then what would you change to help your work as an independent scholar?” 4 Asava et al. Biographies Caleb: My name is Patrick Caleb Smith. (I go by Caleb). I recently completed my Ph.D. in geography as a part-time student, full-time instructor of adult education, and adjunct instructor. I have recently been hired as an instructor of geography and history at a community college. For the past fifteen years, I have been an adjunct instructor at three different colleges while raising a family. I currently live in southern Mississippi and am married with two wonderful kids. Scott: Scott Manning is an independent scholar living outside Philadelphia with his wife, Dawn, who is a poet and metal smith. He has worked in tech for 20 years and the last half of that in entertainment technology. He is currently