Who Am I?
_Jenn
is a curly-haired YA lit enthusiast with a knack for knitting and her
house nearly always smells like baked goods. She will be graduating from
UIUC's LIS program with a masters in May 2012. She has lived in Illinois, Colorado, and Korea, can tell you how food functions in
fantasy YA lit, and how to fix your stupid essay, but will not pet your
cat unless she has taken a great deal of antihistamines. Jenn reads fan
fiction, hosts her friends for epically long study parties, and has a
famously wonderful laugh.
Contact me @ [email protected]
Contact me @ [email protected]
Why Third Spaces and Fanfic/Fandom?
Since long before I'd ever heard of Ray Oldenburg, I've been creating spaces for people my entire life. From high school on, my house was the place where all my friends spent their time. As an undergraduate, I studied the importance of home as it connects to women, both in literature and real life. About two years ago, I came across the term "third space" and discovered that's what I've been doing my whole life, in both my home and my classrooms. Realizing that my students benefited just as much from having this space between as they did from the lessons on reading and writing, I decide that I needed to make my future in the creation of these spaces.
I began reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic in 1999, during the summer hiatus between seasons. In the twelve years since then, I've read in a myriad of fandoms, and discovered that my students would read and write fanfic, but hated anything they had to write for school, even if it wasn't a "formal, academic" essay. Since fanfic has become an almost wholly online concept, there is a great deal of opportunity in creating online third spaces, using the interconnectedness that comes out of fandom communities.
I began reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic in 1999, during the summer hiatus between seasons. In the twelve years since then, I've read in a myriad of fandoms, and discovered that my students would read and write fanfic, but hated anything they had to write for school, even if it wasn't a "formal, academic" essay. Since fanfic has become an almost wholly online concept, there is a great deal of opportunity in creating online third spaces, using the interconnectedness that comes out of fandom communities.