Although geek culture has been widely influential on popular culture, to the extent that Michael Saler (2012:3) has claimed “we are all geeks now,” and significant progress has been in the study made of various aspects of geekdom (video games, comic books, sci-fi and fantasy fandom, etc.), much work remains in developing a holistic understanding of geek culture as it exists both locally and globally. This panel will provide a space to initiate (anthropological) discourses about constructions and representations of “geek identities” as well as theoretical and methodological implications of a “geek anthropology.”

Examples of some possible topics:
• Consumption in/of geek culture
• Representations of geeks in media
• “Post-Revenge” geekdom
• Anthropologist as geek
• Geek culture and cultural imperialism
• Intersections of race, gender, and class with geek identity
• Geek chic and geeksploitation
• Otaku, Friki, and other non-American parallels to geek
• Global flows of geek culture
• Geeks and technology

Submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to nmizer@tamu.edu by March 20. We are also currently looking for a discussant. If you are interested in serving as discussant or have a suggestion for a possible discussant, please let us know at the email above.