I have seen a lot of VERY justified "...but where are the academic jobs specifically for fan scholars??" tweets emerge in the wake of the events Wednesday. Yup, you guessed it...THREAD.

So, like clockwork, much of the news media failed to grasp that there is an entire, decades-long academic field of study devoted to fan cultures, and didn't talk to fan scholars (thus making them and the field more likely to be considered significant and invested in).

But I don't want to talk to them. I want to talk to anyone in a position to write job descriptions or hire folks on why your department should be consider a fan studies line...yesterday. 5 yrs ago. At the very least, it should be a subfield in the mix as you develop new lines.

First let's get some stuff out of the way: yes, I know the academic job market is going to take time to recover. Yes, I am exceedingly lucky to have secured a job in which audience/fan studies was listed as one of the possible areas of specialty (trust me, doesn't happen often)

Okay, enough prelude, here is a massive list of reasons your department should be hiring a fan scholar or someone who studies fans/fan culture...

Are you in a program that isn't media studies so you think this thread doesn't apply to you? Trick! Fan studies is an exceedingly interdisciplinary field (comm studies, religious studies, american studies, policsci, gender + sexuality, Asian studies, psychology, sociology)

Are you in a program where the majority of your students self-identify as wanting to go into media production? Congrats, they need to know how fan culture operates as much as how to operate a camera. Increasingly, engaging/understanding fans is part of the job description.

Are you in a program where all that is valued is butts in seats and your budget depends on enrollment numbers? I defy you to find me a class on fandom, or digital participatory culture, that doesn't fill. It just doesn't happen.  Go ahead...

Are you in a program that (let's be honest) perhaps only recently doubled down on enacting change around issues of diversity and inclusion? I've got news for you- the work this current generation of fan scholars (esp. grad students, independent, and precarious scholars) is doing?

Are you in a program whose grad enrollments aren't what they used to be? There aren't nearly enough programs with designated faculty to serve how fast the field is growing, hence me and others who have landed permanent/TT jobs keeping very busy as outside committee members.

Are you in a program that's having a lot of conversations about media literacy or its limits right now? Fan scholars (and fans for that matter) are really good people to help you think through those questions.

Are you in a program where you want to be on the "cutting edge"? Don't just throw out the word "digital," consider explicitly targeting scholars from fields like fan studies who are studying tech early adopters/digital networks and communities.

I could expand on any of these and/or add about 20 more, but here's the thing: all of these reasons don't even get at the amazing work done in this field, or its breadth or depth. Because it's too frequently dismissed as frivolous or self-indulgent.

There are pop culture or political events that make me (perhaps naively) think, "well, surely they can see the value NOW" and yet the fan studies jobs rarely follow. So we get comfortable pitching what we do through more established or respected critical lenses or frameworks.

Even if you manage to land a job you do this. We, more than many other media studies subfields, are told from the outset that we will have to get comfortable justifying the work we do as important. And maybe that won't ever really change (hence this very mercenary list)

Bottom line: the sheer number of un- or under-employed fan scholars I know is truly galling. I know so many more in the pipeline who would contribute so much to your department. I could list 50 reasons why you should hire them, for the good of your faculty and student body.

Fan studies has it's own problems and blind spots that it needs to reckon with, I'm not holding it up as a perfect discipline. But it needs to start being taken seriously institutionally. I think we all got a horrifying object lesson this week in what happens when you don't.

By all means, reply with more reasons we need to be hiring more fan studies folks. I am off to go work on a talk about how fan cosplay discourses were invoked in news coverage.