Sabrina Mittermeier (dir.), Fan Phenomena: Disney, Intellect Books, 2022. 

Fan Phenomena: Disney collects essays on Disney fans, spanning a variety of media (such as film, television, novels, stage productions and theme parks) and different fannish approaches (cosplay, fan art), as well as the company’s reactions to them.

It is a timely intervention that deals with crucial issues such as race and racism within the Disney fandom and in Disney texts, the role of queerness, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the advent of the streaming service Disney+.

The authors come from variety of disciplines, such as cultural and media studies, marketing and communications, cultural history or theatre and performance studies, and include both leading experts in fan and Disney studies, as well as emerging voices in these fields, plus interviews with fan practitioners.

It will be popular with scholars of cultural studies, cultural history, media studies, fan studies; Disney fans, and students at any level.

Dr Sabrina Mittermeier is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in American cultural history at the University of Kassel, Germany, the author of A Cultural History of the Disneyland Theme Parks (Intellect 2021), and the co-editor of Fighting for the Future: Essays on Star Trek: Discovery (2020), as well as The Routledge Handbook of Star Trek (2022).

Table of contents

Introduction – Sabrina Mittermeier

Part 1: Diversity and the Disney Princess

1. Frozen Fever: Fan Fashion, Costumes, and Revisions of Elsa and Anna Designs – Nicole Lamerichs

2. ‘Let It Go!’: Child Fans, Song, and the Frozen Franchise – Ryan Bunch 
3. “Dream Big, Princess”: Disney’s Princess Fandom as a Trans-generational, Feminist Fan Space – Tracey Mollet 
4. That’s (Not) My Princess: Representation, Race, and (Anti-)Fan Activism – Christina Wurst 
5. Panel Discussion: The Live Action Mulan (2020) and Disney’s Approach to Racial Diversity – Michelle Anya Anjirbag, Bertha Chin & Jingan Young 

Interlude: Representation, Censorship and Disney+

6. “Please don’t censor Hamilton!”: Disney+, Social Media Fandom, and Censorship – Olympia Kiriakou 
7. Musings of a Queer Disney Fan – Sabrina Mittermeier 

Part 2: The Disney Theme Parks and Their Fans

8. Creativity and Connection: How Disney Parks’ Fans Responded During the Coronavirus Closures – Rebecca Williams 
9. To Act Like a Kid or Not to Act Like a Kid: Disneybounding in the Parks – Rebecca Rowe 

Fan Appreciation: Victoria Wade 

10. Friends Just Around the Riverbend: Performing Intimacy and Authenticity in Disney Park Character Meets – Victoria Pettersen Lantz 

Fan Appreciation: Shawn Rosell

11. Haunted Waters: The Elimination of Liveness in Disney’s Rivers of Light – Tom Robson 
12. From Mickey Waffles to Vegan Samosas: Evolving Disney Food Fandoms – Jennifer A. Kokai 
13. The Traveling Disney Bear ‘Duffy’ and His Surprising Popularity in Japan – Katharina Hülsmann & Timo Thelen 

        Fan Appreciaton: Chris Nilghe

Part 3: The Brand and its Fans – How Disney Responds to Fandom and Monetizes Fan Labor 

14. Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust: Disney’s Participatory Publics – Amber L. Hutchins 
15. Disney’s Social Media Moms – Kylie Torres 
16. Fitting Inside the Mouse House – Disney’s Experiential Media Aesthetics – Chris Comerford 
17. Disney Publishing and the Saturation of the Imaginative Market – Michelle Anya Anjirbag 

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