Hello!

My name is Dr. Danielle Soulliere (aka "Dr. D") and I am an Associate Professor in Sociology and Criminology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

A sociologist by nature and academic training, I am keenly interested in the intersections of popular culture with crime and criminal justice, gender and sexuality, and social interaction and communication.

My current research is focused on aspects of cybersociology, in particular fan culture and online fandom communities. I currenly lurk in the Merlin fandom and consider myself a devoted Merlin/Arthur slash fangirl.

To date, I have presented two conference papers focused on the Merlin fandom online community and I am preparing another conference paper with a student colleague focused on slash fanart.

( Homoeroticizing Close Male Friendships: An Exploration of the Merlin/Arthur Slash Fandom )

( Fan Culture Goes Online!Pop: The Merlin Fandom Community on LiveJournal )

( The Art of Slash: An Exploration of Slash Fan Art in Online Spaces )

I have set up this journal mainly to engage with the fandom community and to communicate my research interests and projects.

Presented paper with student colleague Stacey Riddell at the second conference of the Popular Culture Association of Canada held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, May 10-12. Good vibes were felt :)

The Art of Slash: An Exploration of Slash Fan Art in Online Spaces

Within many fandoms, fan activities focused on slash (same-sex romantic and/or sexual pairings) have become widely popular. While fan fiction has been a staple of slash fan productivity, slashing activities now include fan art and fan videos. Fan art, in particular, encompasses a range of formats from traditional drawings to digital creations, manipulated photographs, and other graphics including those that are animated. Moreover, slash fan art has found online spaces for display and exchange that extend beyond the conventional spaces of fanzines and fan meet-ups. This paper explores slash fan art within three popular online fandoms - Harry Potter, Supernatural, Merlin (BBC) - using the critical perspective of queer theory through an aca-fan lens. Current debates surrounding slash fan art are explored and discussed within this framework and the next steps of this research endeavour are outlined.

UPDATE:

We have found 266 LiveJournal communities that relate to the BBC show Merlin. Of these, 152 comms (57%) are currently active (have made a post in the last six months).

Comm Creation by Year:

2008 - 65 comms
2009 - 93 comms
2010 - 79 comms
2011 - 23 comms
2012 - 6 comms

Why is BROLIN - the shipping of Bradley James and Colin Morgan - so popular?


Pic edit by revamped

An examination of a sample of approximately 1000 LJ members of the Merlin Fandom reveals the diversity of Merlin fans, representing 45 distinct countries, with a concentration of fans in Europe and North America.



Merlin fans on LiveJournal (for which such information was available) are located:

( Merlin Fandom Diversity )

I've searched LJ by exploring and doing the snowball technique and have found 209 communities currently dedicated to Merlin BBC or its characters, not including comms that are specific to the actors.

Once organized, I'll post a master list of the Merlin comms as a resource.