Contents May Vary: Academic J. Caroline Troy Takes a Fan Pilgrimage
Episode: 61: Academic J. Caroline Troy Takes a Fan Pilgrimage
J. Caroline Toy (she/her) is Learning Experience Manager in the Center for Learning & Teaching at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, and Adjunct Professor in the College’s humanities Core. Her research and teaching focus on religion, popular media, and fan cultures, specializing in how fans use types of ritual and narrative practices that are traditionally associated with religion. Trained as a scholar of folklore and religion, she is also interested in religion in public space and protest in the United States, and changing rural and urban experiences of place.
She has published in venues including The Journal of Fandom Studies, Transformative Works and Cultures, Understanding Religion and Popular Culture (2nd ed.), and the Humanities Commons, and has appeared on the Mugglenet podcast Reading, Writing, Rowling (now Potterversity). Caroline is a huge (HUGE!) Doctor Who fan and a lifelong Trekker, has an “It’s complicated” relationship with Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and will try basically any mystery novel. When not geeking out, she paddles dragon boats and spoils her cat, St. Alia of the Eighteen Knives. You can find samples of her work at Academia.edu.
We met online in 2019, and I was an interviewee for her Fan Pilgrimage Project.
Basic show notes:
- Running time is 37 minutes, 42 seconds.
- The initial interview was recorded on February 10, 2024.
- General notes from the interview:
- I mention my many photos from my trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff in 2014;
- she mentions The American Religious Sounds Project;
- she mentions Henry Jenkins and Matt Hills;
- she mentions the journal Transformative Works and Cultures; and
- she mentions her Academia.edu profile.
- The mid-show plug is from Neil Teixeira from the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, who I interviewed as part of my coverage of the 2017 LA Times Book Festival in episode 24.
- I mention my Google Voice and encourage you to call and leave a message about what you’re geeking out about and why. That phone number is 424-341-2252.
- Theme music is “Schoolyard Haze”, by Jari Pitkanen, available via the Free Music Archive. Interested in hearing other episodes or learning where all you can hear (and rate) the podcast? Check out the main podcast page.
So, sit back, relax, and let the interview begin. Stay geeky!
