Participants are not only simply attending Comic-Con but they are engaging in the study of the social phenomena taking place during the five-day event.

The Field Study Program

While at Comic-Con International, students will study popular culture through the methods of participant ethnography. We will be examining the intersection of practicing fan culture and the political economy of industrial marketing. Thus, most of our time in San Diego will be spent participating in the Con, attending programs, observing fan behaviors, examining the industries' cultural artifacts, and interviewing participants.

Students will complete a set of readings before the Con, and we will meet each day before programming begins for a breakfast briefing. Your assignments will include daily exercises and a paper to be completed in the week after the Con concludes. You'll also have the opportunity to address the Con with your preliminary findings while you are in San Diego.

The Comic Arts Conference is a series of academic programs featured within the larger Con. By special arrangement with the planners, members of our program will present some of our preliminary results on a Sunday panel before an audience of academics and the public. This is a wonderful opportunity to participate in a scholarly exercise and to earn an impressive resume item, especially for those students thinking of going on to graduate study.

• Review the 2007 course syllabus
  
  
  
  
  

Application deadline is February 29, 2008.