This book is an attempt to approach fandom from a perspective that has been surprisingly neglected: an economic perspective. In this extended introduction, I am going to explore these limitations, starting by showing how fan studies has been shaped by what I term ‘fancademia’, a product of the blurring of roles between fan and academic that has emerged out of a body of work that has sought to celebrate fandom. The purpose of this introduction is not to offer yet another history of fan studies – other titles, such as the introduction to Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington (2007), and Mark Duffett's indispensable Understanding Fandom (2013), have done a far more exhaustive job of this than I could offer – but to explore a central issue that has limited and, in some respects, continues to limit the field.

Fancademia: A Limitation of Fan Studies?

As a regular attender of academic conferences, it is noticeable how many, particularly those relating to cult film and fandom, are dominated by fan discourses. I have witnessed presentations where the presenter has exhibited his poster collection while telling the audience why he likes a particular cult film director and why they should too; another presenter justified why he liked a generally reviled sequel of a famous slasher film series, and one presenter performed a scene of castration from a horror film to a mystified audience (thankfully, it was nothing more than a re-enactment). For me, such observations highlight how the boundaries between the academic and fan have become increasingly blurred, creating what I term fancademia. Fancademia celebrates the object of study, such as a cult text, at the expense of thinking about the conditions in which these texts are produced or, in some situations, received.