Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the SEM 2026 Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
Use the search bar to search by name or title of paper/session. Note that this search bar does not search by keyword.
Click on the session name for a detailed view (with participant names and abstracts).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 29th Aug 2026, 08:45:46pm EDT
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Daily Overview |
| Session | |
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05G: Digital Music Cultures: Labor, Fandom, and Industry Location: Redbud | |
| Presentation 1 | |
From Glitter to Green: EcoSwifties, Material Culture, and Environmental Responsibility in Taylor Swift Fan Communities Wilfrid Laurier University Beads from a friendship bracelet scatter across asphalt, catching stadium light before disappearing into the dark. A snowglobe breaks in transit, glitter drifting loose, a tiny storm of permanence and loss. This presentation examines the environmental and ecological dimensions of contemporary Taylor Swift fandom through the emergence of “EcoSwifties”—fans who integrate environmental ethics into their participation in Swiftie culture. Framing fandom as both an ecological and cultural phenomenon, I argue that large-scale pop fandoms generate material, infrastructural, and affective environmental impacts through touring, merchandise production, digital platforms, and fan mobility. Rather than positioning environmental critique as external to fandom, I foreground how ecological concern arises from within fan communities as a form of ethical self-reflexivity. Drawing on mixed-method qualitative research, combining digital ethnography, online discourse analysis, and content analysis of public fan spaces, I examine how EcoSwifties negotiate the moral tension between affective attachment to a beloved artist and unease with the environmental costs of fandom practices. Particular attention is given to merchandise culture—such as vinyl variants, limited-edition drops, and defective goods—as a key site where environmental anxiety, consumer guilt, and ethical experimentation converge. Through anonymized ethnographic vignettes, I show how fans articulate responsibility not through abstention, but through reuse, repair, upcycling, peer education, and forms of “low-impact” participation. Ultimately, the presentation contributes to scholarship on fandom, popular music, and the environmental humanities by demonstrating how fans operate as ecological actors, mediating pleasure, care, and planetary responsibility within highly mediated pop cultures. | |
