the problem with fan academics is their insistence on conflating their research samples to prove their position about an entire fandom when it’s honestly the most basic knowledge that fandoms are not a monolith and your experience will differ basis a million factors e.g. identity

I know academia is notorious for making you defend your research so you narrow the scope & sample and conferences maybe the place for that, but taking it to corporate press which works on an sensationalist news cycle will open you to questions about the validity of your research

and the way kpop academics are failing to see that they need to revise their approach or find better ways to frame their research when they take it to non-fan audiences, but instead being like “oh I’m nervous about this cancel wagon” says a lot about what we are to them - data

I hate to be reductionist but we have to acknowledge that the academy is a colonial project, this ofc doesn’t mean that every academic has colonial gaze, but research methods need a lot more humility and nuance than a search for validation for your thought position

please check out this incredible comic - It made me really reassess the way I look at academia and understand that at the heart of knowledge is curiosity & not an insistence on being right https://www.instagram.com/p/CMj3f5gF3s8/?igshid=159xwy8gbhyxk