2023

“Tumblr Fandom is An Unknowable Anti-Monolith Cryptid”

in Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader, edited by Paul Booth, Joy Piedmont, Matt Hills, and Tansy Rayner

My chapter looks at Tumblr through lens of Doctor Who fandom to explore the unique ways the site lends itself to niche communities and mass dissemination of culture and ideas.

2021

It’s OK to be horny for the villain

But the argument about villain lust is as old as literature, and it hasn’t changed much over the last century. Moral purity still isn’t a prerequisite for thirst.

Doctor Who Explores the Rich Complexity of Asexuality

Each regeneration comes with a new take on the same being. The way they express themselves varies according to that Doctor’s specific personality. It’s wonderful, though fictional, proof that there is more than one way to be sexy, to be ace, and to be queer. The Doctor, more than anything, is an explorer: a fundamentally important aspect of queerness.

An Ode to Shadow and Bone‘s Milo the Goat

Some might argue that it was Jesper’s bullet, lovingly tied around Milo’s neck as a parting gift, that saved Mal, but that someone would be wrong. It was Milo, carrying the bullet, who saw that the bullet reached its Chekhovian destination.

2020

Quiz of Rassilon

“Because of the connections and atmosphere we’ve created, it’s like a clubhouse. A space for people to combat their anxiety for being alone all the time,” Morris says. Much like when the quiz was in a pub, the online space has people closing out the night, the last to leave the room. As Morris explains, “People will stay in their breakout rooms after the quiz, just talking for hours, literally until we shut them down.” 

Item 19 (Scav 2020)

For the 2020 University of Chicago’s remote scavenger hunt, I made this PSA video for abandoned stuffed animals. Having no personal ties to U of Chicago, I got involved through an alum friend and had a blast fulfilling prompts.

2019

Copy for Sara McSorely

Wrote description and flavor text for artist Sara McSorley’s merchandise, used in production manufacturing and at conventions.

How Doctor Who is Bringing TV Back to the Past

Giving free access to previously obscure media hidden behind paywalls and licensing issues rejuvenates old fandoms and help to broaden the cultural landscape. Twitch is providing an opportunity to put shows in the background again, to weave the light and sound of television into the everyday of our lives.

2018

Mikey & Nicky

It’s unclear whether Nicky is trying to rub salt in the wound, change Mikey’s mind, or simply spend his last moments with an old friend. It’s probably some mixture of the three. But their conversations touch on something human and philosophical. Even though Mikey can explain in every detail something that happened to him as a child – what his father was like, who his brother was – his wife will never have the same understanding of events as someone who also lived through it. When Nicky dies, that shared experience of the watch and the father and the brother also dies, a fact that Mikey willfully doesn’t want to deal with for most of the film.

2017

“Leave Us Alone, Mel Brooks!”:

Gift Culture, Fan Exploitation, and What To Do About It

When authors ‘file off the serial numbers,’ they are simultaneously relinquishing their fandom ties, an act of shame, while capitalizing on fannish practices to make money…Switching directly from one economy to another, while certainly potentially profitable for the individual, seems too morally dubious and culturally insensitive to be a lasting solution for fandom.

2016

Third Doctor #1 Review

Why do we NEED the Third Doctor right now? His era was full of allegories (and not-so allegories) for British politics in the ’70s, conquering a lot of controversial topics without fear. It would be great to see what Three has to say about Brexit, or current immigration controversies, or BBC funding.