Dr Suzanne Black
@suzannerblack.bsky.social
Into Contemporary Literature, Digital Humanities & Fan Studies.
Postdoctoral Researcher, CoSTAR Foresight Lab, University of Edinburgh; views my own.
she/her
Please don't DM me - I can't access them anymore.
Postdoctoral Researcher, CoSTAR Foresight Lab, University of Edinburgh; views my own.
she/her
Please don't DM me - I can't access them anymore.
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My first monograph, 'Between Novel and Network: Technology and Literary Form in Fiction and Fanfiction', will be published by
@lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026!
It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory.
See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
@lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026!
It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory.
See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
Jing Bai's exploration of Japanese fandom otaku communities treats thinking about the incursion of gen AI into fan activities as a consideration of the information seeking and organisation practices of humans. Thought-provoking stuff!
November 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Jing Bai's exploration of Japanese fandom otaku communities treats thinking about the incursion of gen AI into fan activities as a consideration of the information seeking and organisation practices of humans. Thought-provoking stuff!
Irissa Cisternino & Rebecca Radillo do a great job of laying out the stakes for creativity, especially fan creativity, in the wake of gen AI. They ask what it means to outsource 'labors of love' to a tool, a similar question asked by @elizabethminkel.bsky.social in ellipsus.com/blog/generat...
November 21, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Irissa Cisternino & Rebecca Radillo do a great job of laying out the stakes for creativity, especially fan creativity, in the wake of gen AI. They ask what it means to outsource 'labors of love' to a tool, a similar question asked by @elizabethminkel.bsky.social in ellipsus.com/blog/generat...
My first monograph, 'Between Novel and Network: Technology and Literary Form in Fiction and Fanfiction', will be published by
@lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026!
It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory.
See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
@lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026!
It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory.
See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
November 19, 2025 at 5:34 PM
My first monograph, 'Between Novel and Network: Technology and Literary Form in Fiction and Fanfiction', will be published by
@lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026!
It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory.
See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
@lsupress.bsky.social on 16 May 2026!
It connects contemporary fiction, fanfiction and literary theory.
See lsupress.org/978080718642... for more details.
This is such a great article by Eva Cheuk-Yin Li & Ka-Wei Pang about a specific incident in fandom in which discourse around AI deepfakes was weaponised by fans. Beyond the incident itself, it offers a thoughtful example of how to engage with fandom incidents with care and respect.
November 14, 2025 at 2:58 PM
This is such a great article by Eva Cheuk-Yin Li & Ka-Wei Pang about a specific incident in fandom in which discourse around AI deepfakes was weaponised by fans. Beyond the incident itself, it offers a thoughtful example of how to engage with fandom incidents with care and respect.
This article by Tara Heimberger delves further into the popular fan activity of creating, sharing and interacting with characters chat bots, and places this activity in a contimuum of creative and immersive fan practices.
November 12, 2025 at 9:36 PM
This article by Tara Heimberger delves further into the popular fan activity of creating, sharing and interacting with characters chat bots, and places this activity in a contimuum of creative and immersive fan practices.
This article examines ChatGPT's biases around queer and heteronormative representation in creative writing and fanfiction. Interesting stuff!
Next in New Currents, @drtlwagner.bsky.social & Alison Harding use traditional analyses to examine work created using generative AI in ""Remember, love knows no boundaries and comes in many forms": The conceptualization of queerness within AI-generated fan works"! Read it in #TWC46:
buff.ly
November 12, 2025 at 9:34 PM
This article examines ChatGPT's biases around queer and heteronormative representation in creative writing and fanfiction. Interesting stuff!
This article by @julianeugarten.bsky.social is a fascinating glimpse into fanfiction responding to Ancient Greek mythology as well as a meditation on the suitability of specific digital methods for analysing fanfic, emphasising the importance of close reading in computational literary studies 👀📖
In #TWC46's first New Currents article, @julianeugarten.bsky.social explores the potential of a suite of natural language processing and machine learning tools to examine power and gender dynamics in fan fiction featuring characters from Greek mythology! Read it here:
buff.ly
November 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
This article by @julianeugarten.bsky.social is a fascinating glimpse into fanfiction responding to Ancient Greek mythology as well as a meditation on the suitability of specific digital methods for analysing fanfic, emphasising the importance of close reading in computational literary studies 👀📖
I have a new essay out on the CRAIC site as part of a larger piece of work around data-led approaches in the creative industries. I hope you enjoy it! craic.lboro.ac.uk/essays/captu... @designinf.bsky.social @melissaterras.bsky.social @lborouniversity.bsky.social
Capturing the value of creative R&D: data-collection for the Creative Industries Clusters Programme
Dr Suzanne R Black, CRAIC, Loughborough University London, and CoSTAR Foresight Lab Introduction This essay addresses gaps and challenges in quantifying and understanding innovation through ...
craic.lboro.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 10:51 AM
I have a new essay out on the CRAIC site as part of a larger piece of work around data-led approaches in the creative industries. I hope you enjoy it! craic.lboro.ac.uk/essays/captu... @designinf.bsky.social @melissaterras.bsky.social @lborouniversity.bsky.social
My lovely friend Naomi Jacobs (@ladylark.bsky.social) and I wanted to explore the repercussions of the new-found prevalence of AI on fans, fandom and fan studies. Some excellent scholars contributed articles to a special section of @journal.transformativeworks.org, which is out now! Enjoy!
I'm really excited that a collection of fascinating work on fandom, fans and AI that @suzannerblack.bsky.social and I co-edited is out today in the new volume of @journal.transformativeworks.org - and as the journal's first 'New Currents' section! Read our editorial here doi.org/10.3983/twc....
Fans and AI: Transformations in fandom and fan studies
| Transformative Works and Cultures
doi.org
September 15, 2025 at 1:41 PM
My lovely friend Naomi Jacobs (@ladylark.bsky.social) and I wanted to explore the repercussions of the new-found prevalence of AI on fans, fandom and fan studies. Some excellent scholars contributed articles to a special section of @journal.transformativeworks.org, which is out now! Enjoy!
I must have some Xena fans here - help a researcher out with this survey:
Please take this online survey to help me understand Xena fans and the relationship of the fandom to the makers of the show. #xena, #xenawarriorprincess, #xwp Share with anyone who might be interested! ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
September 4, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I must have some Xena fans here - help a researcher out with this survey:
Do you watch TV? Please take this survey to help me understand what audiences think of TV production techniques. app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/... Please share widely, and thanks in advance.
#FanStudies #AudienceResearch
#FanStudies #AudienceResearch
TV Survey
Online surveys is a powerful, easy to use tool for creating online surveys. Run by Jisc, online surveys is used by over 300 different organisations in the UK...
app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk
August 20, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Do you watch TV? Please take this survey to help me understand what audiences think of TV production techniques. app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/... Please share widely, and thanks in advance.
#FanStudies #AudienceResearch
#FanStudies #AudienceResearch
Let's try this again. New research from myself and my lovely colleagues about dealing with unexpected AI when collecting research data:
I'm pleased to share that Louise Connelly,
@suzannerblack.bsky.social, @melissaterras.bsky.social & my 'Guidance for Research Ethics Committees and Researchers on Designing Research in the Age of AI' is out now under CC license: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Read, share onwards and give us your feedback!
@suzannerblack.bsky.social, @melissaterras.bsky.social & my 'Guidance for Research Ethics Committees and Researchers on Designing Research in the Age of AI' is out now under CC license: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Read, share onwards and give us your feedback!
Guidance for research ethics committees and researchers on designing research in the age of AI
This paper is concerned with the implications of artificial intelligence (AI), and particularly the impact of generative AI content, on the work and processes of university/institution Research Boards...
doi.org
August 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Let's try this again. New research from myself and my lovely colleagues about dealing with unexpected AI when collecting research data:
I absolutely loved this recent article by @alothian.bsky.social about Captain America fanfic and its relationship to utopian thinking and worldbuilding. Alexis’ work is always nuanced and insightful and this article is no exception. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/utopian...
Captain America, Genderqueer Socialist: The Utopian Politics of Queer Fan Fiction
ABSTRACT. As a practice of literalizing narrative desire, fan fiction can be a rich source of utopian imagination. Participants in fandom and academic spaces alike discuss the capacity for fan fiction...
scholarlypublishingcollective.org
August 7, 2025 at 3:55 PM
I absolutely loved this recent article by @alothian.bsky.social about Captain America fanfic and its relationship to utopian thinking and worldbuilding. Alexis’ work is always nuanced and insightful and this article is no exception. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/utopian...
I have just realised that Lists here don't include reposts, only original posts. (If anyone knows a way around this - other than just reading my Home feed - please do let me know.) Sorry for missing probably hundreds of great messages!
July 17, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I have just realised that Lists here don't include reposts, only original posts. (If anyone knows a way around this - other than just reading my Home feed - please do let me know.) Sorry for missing probably hundreds of great messages!
This is a great piece from Padmini about some of the specific harms that come from LLMs created by a very small number of people and using training data that represents only a fragment of the planet. It's giving me lots of thoughts about the concept of normativity.
Very glad to share this piece where I explain why LLMs & AI in their current formations are unlikely to be fair & ethical in their representations of the Majority World. I make recommendations on how we might shift these imbalances, and what needs to be done in order to do so. bit.ly/3IMlgbr
The Machines Are Not All Right: Rethinking (Artificial) Intelligence • In Plainspeak
Can AI truly understand human experience without our language, identity, and history? This piece explores how current models fall short and where hope lies in community-driven, inclusive approaches.
www.tarshi.net
July 16, 2025 at 3:54 PM
This is a great piece from Padmini about some of the specific harms that come from LLMs created by a very small number of people and using training data that represents only a fragment of the planet. It's giving me lots of thoughts about the concept of normativity.
@designinf.bsky.social I imagine this book project will be of interest to many in the department. Let's hope they are able to do a second run and distribute outside the US. @ryancordell.org - thanks for sharing this sneak peek with us!
Friends, please share!
Proofs are ready for @skeuomorphpress.org's edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s "A Rant About Technology." I am so pleased with this book—in many ways our 1st real book project
Details about how to get one through our fundraiser at skeuomorph.ischool.illinois.edu/le-guin-book...
Proofs are ready for @skeuomorphpress.org's edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s "A Rant About Technology." I am so pleased with this book—in many ways our 1st real book project
Details about how to get one through our fundraiser at skeuomorph.ischool.illinois.edu/le-guin-book...
July 11, 2025 at 2:02 PM
@designinf.bsky.social I imagine this book project will be of interest to many in the department. Let's hope they are able to do a second run and distribute outside the US. @ryancordell.org - thanks for sharing this sneak peek with us!
I haven’t given much thought to using interview quotes in the titles of journal articles. Turns out there’s a whole study about the practice! Fascinating stuff. doi.org/10.1080/0898...
A critical analysis of respondent quotes used as titles of qualitative research papers that are published in peer-reviewed journals
The use of respondent quotes to headline qualitative research papers is a popular literary device found in many academic journals. This practice has increased over the last four decades and now app...
doi.org
July 8, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I haven’t given much thought to using interview quotes in the titles of journal articles. Turns out there’s a whole study about the practice! Fascinating stuff. doi.org/10.1080/0898...
So proud of my wonderful colleague for managing to do good work in these trying times 😍
@suchprettyeyes.bsky.social received the Impact Festival 2025 Research Impact Prize.
She has demonstrated exceptional leadership in managing Creative Informatics. Their expertise has been central to the transformative impact of this initiative on Scotland’s creative industries. edin.ac/4ncIszD
She has demonstrated exceptional leadership in managing Creative Informatics. Their expertise has been central to the transformative impact of this initiative on Scotland’s creative industries. edin.ac/4ncIszD
DI Manager Nicola Osborne awarded The Research Impact Prize 2025
This is "DI Manager Nicola Osborne awarded The Research Impact Prize 2025" by Design Informatics on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people…
edin.ac
June 24, 2025 at 2:43 PM
So proud of my wonderful colleague for managing to do good work in these trying times 😍
There doesn't seem to be much blsky-ing going on about the UK Ireland DH conference in Glasgow this week. But I still want to thank the organisers properly. This event reminded me of what's important and the importance of community - a reminder I sorely needed. Thank you all! @ukiedh.bsky.social
June 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM
There doesn't seem to be much blsky-ing going on about the UK Ireland DH conference in Glasgow this week. But I still want to thank the organisers properly. This event reminded me of what's important and the importance of community - a reminder I sorely needed. Thank you all! @ukiedh.bsky.social
"when people let the bot write the fic, they’re outsourcing their own fannishness." This article is great at summing up some of the recent interactions between fanfiction and gen AI, and why we should care.
For the wonderful folks at @ellipsus.com, I wrote a guest post about fic and generative AI!
As people yank archives for LLMs or "finish" others' work with these tools, we're increasingly seeing AI used to create fic, too. But if you outsource the act of being a fan to AI, what does that leave you?
As people yank archives for LLMs or "finish" others' work with these tools, we're increasingly seeing AI used to create fic, too. But if you outsource the act of being a fan to AI, what does that leave you?
Where the wild stories are
Fandom is a vast and varied space made up of many overlapping communities, and just like the world at large, attitudes about genAI aren’t a monolith. But if If you outsource the act of being a fan to ...
ellipsus.com
May 2, 2025 at 5:18 PM
"when people let the bot write the fic, they’re outsourcing their own fannishness." This article is great at summing up some of the recent interactions between fanfiction and gen AI, and why we should care.
Reposted by Dr Suzanne Black
Colleagues of mine are seeking to commission a graphic novel that captures their research project's findings.
Commission value £24,000, application deadline 7th May
To apply: Send CV and portfolio to [email protected]
Further details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/nuri-k...
Commission value £24,000, application deadline 7th May
To apply: Send CV and portfolio to [email protected]
Further details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/nuri-k...
April 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Colleagues of mine are seeking to commission a graphic novel that captures their research project's findings.
Commission value £24,000, application deadline 7th May
To apply: Send CV and portfolio to [email protected]
Further details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/nuri-k...
Commission value £24,000, application deadline 7th May
To apply: Send CV and portfolio to [email protected]
Further details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/nuri-k...
Reposted by Dr Suzanne Black
Oh hello, New @costarnetwork.bsky.social Big Real Virtual Production Film Academy, in Dundee! The Academy is open to current Scotland-residing graduates, current Master students or film makers early in their career. Applications close 30th April - please share! #CoSTARNetwork
About | The Big Real Film Academy
bigreal.abertay.ac.uk
April 17, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Oh hello, New @costarnetwork.bsky.social Big Real Virtual Production Film Academy, in Dundee! The Academy is open to current Scotland-residing graduates, current Master students or film makers early in their career. Applications close 30th April - please share! #CoSTARNetwork
Thank you @miriamposner.com for putting together this list of resources to show how LLMs work. Really useful for students (and students-no-longer!)
OK, every year I try to explain to my students how LLMs work, and every year I have to do a big trawl for good resources and activities. Here's this year's haul of *introductory* materials. (In-class activities + visualizations, not so much readings.)
March 6, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Thank you @miriamposner.com for putting together this list of resources to show how LLMs work. Really useful for students (and students-no-longer!)
I just found out that you can download your kindle books as azw3 files to your PC as a backup … and that Amazon are removing this ability on 26 Feb. www.theverge.com/news/612898/...
Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books
It’s bad if you like to keep ebook backup copies.
www.theverge.com
February 17, 2025 at 9:50 AM
I just found out that you can download your kindle books as azw3 files to your PC as a backup … and that Amazon are removing this ability on 26 Feb. www.theverge.com/news/612898/...
This was my first time participating in a Call for Evidence for a House of Lords Inquiry (on creative AI). It was an interesting process writing for such a different outlet than the usual journal articles. Nice to see the HoL has taken our points on board.
Delighted that our Creative Informatics response to the House of Lord inquiry on Creative AI is featured so heavily in the final report. “AI and creative technology scaleups: less talk, more
action”. It’s always worth putting in a response!
action”. It’s always worth putting in a response!
publications.parliament.uk
February 3, 2025 at 10:49 AM
This was my first time participating in a Call for Evidence for a House of Lords Inquiry (on creative AI). It was an interesting process writing for such a different outlet than the usual journal articles. Nice to see the HoL has taken our points on board.