Rhiannon Bury, Athabasca University
Associate Professor
Athabasca, Alberta
rbury@athabascau.ca
Office:
(186) 637-6980 ext. 2
Expert In
Bio/Research
In the tradition of British Cultural Studies, I ask empirical questions, informed by feminist, Marxist and poststructuralist theory, about identity formation (with emphasis on gender, class and sexuality) and community making afforded by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For my d...
Click to Expand >>
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
In the tradition of British Cultural Studies, I ask empirical questions, informed by feminist, Marxist and poststructuralist theory, about identity formation (with emphasis on gender, class and sexuality) and community making afforded by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For my doctoral dissertation, I spent one year conducting ethnographic research with female fans of the television series, The X-Files. I focussed not only on unequal gender relations in online media fan forums but the ways in which gender identities are performed in cyberspace as well as the ways women-only online communities are created and maintained.
My next project involved a case study of a women-centred online community of writers and readers of fan fiction, that is, stories written by fans about their favourite television or movie characters. More recently, I analyzed the postings of Six Feet Under fans made to a public internet fan forum and the ways in which they made sense of the story. This research draws connections between the rapid spread of ICTs in the past ten years and the centrality of media fan practices, ranging from talk about television to the production of alternative forms of media, in contemporary North American social life. It also highlights the tenacity of print-based literacies in a digital age.
I recently completed a project on women's friendships developed and maintained through computer-mediated communication. In the future I am interested in further investigating the experiences of women who work in IT fields as well as community making practices in online learning communities.
Click to Shrink <<
My next project involved a case study of a women-centred online community of writers and readers of fan fiction, that is, stories written by fans about their favourite television or movie characters. More recently, I analyzed the postings of Six Feet Under fans made to a public internet fan forum and the ways in which they made sense of the story. This research draws connections between the rapid spread of ICTs in the past ten years and the centrality of media fan practices, ranging from talk about television to the production of alternative forms of media, in contemporary North American social life. It also highlights the tenacity of print-based literacies in a digital age.
I recently completed a project on women's friendships developed and maintained through computer-mediated communication. In the future I am interested in further investigating the experiences of women who work in IT fields as well as community making practices in online learning communities.
Click to Shrink <<