I'm doing my dissertation on slash fan fiction and I'd like to talk to people from a number of fan fiction backgrounds including gen and het. I can do interviews via e-mail, AIM, phone, and in person (I'll be in Minneapolis, Ottawa, Toronto, Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor in the next few months). If you're interested please respond off list by sending me an e-mail to let me know how you'd like to be contacted. I'd be happy to provide further details on my background and the particulars of my research on this project thus far.
In more formal language:
Would you be interested in participating in research on slash fan fiction? My name is Anne Kustritz. I am a graduate student at the University of Michigan. I am studying slash and the community activities which have formed around these texts by observing and participating in convention activities and on-line slash communities. I'd like to ask you some questions about your experiences in this community. Please feel free to skip a question or to end our correspondence at any time if you wish to do so. Stopping or skipping questions in no way affects your relationship with me or with the university. The data that I am collecting may be used as a part of my future research papers, proposals, essays, or a book or dissertation. You may choose to be identified in these publications by a pseudonym of your choosing, or you may choose to not be quoted in publication, meaning that your comments will add to my general understanding of the community but will never be directly quoted or identified. I would be happy to answer any questions or respond to any comments that you may have now or in the future, at any time during our correspondence or afterwards.
It is my understanding that slash fan fiction circulates in an adult community; I am only looking for participants over the age of 18. You can contact me by e-mail at EQMJ (at) aol.com. If you have any other concerns about my research or your experience as a participant, feel free to contact Kate Keever at the University of Michigan I R B office for the protection of human subjects at 1040 Fleming Administration Building, 503 Thompson Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1340, by phone at 734 936-0933, or by e-mail at irbhsbs (at) umich.edu.
Thanks!
Anne/Equanimity
EQMJ (at) aol.com
akustrit (at) umich.edu