All's fair in love and research

Anyone who visits this site knows by now that I rarely update it. I'm always busy with one thing or another. I've also been bad about keeping up with my email (I've been slogging through my spam-infested backlog looking for actual emails addressed to me). I am pleased to announce, however, that I am now at a point in my life where maintaining my online presence is of top priority. I will be answering my emails more rigorously, posting messages on web forums and mailing lists more frequently, making myself available to chat, and updating my websites. Why now, you might ask? It's all in the name of research...

After three years of getting through coursework, field exams, grant writing, and my dissertation proposal, I am finally able to get on with my fieldwork studying otaku culture, with an emphasis on anime fandom. That means I'll be online a lot more. I recently made a website to introduce myself and my research to current and potential interview subjects:

If you're an anime fan and would like to contribute to my research by sharing your thoughts and experiences, please contact me by email (or find me on AIM at Lawmune7).

It's definitely great to be doing field research after all this time, going to anime cons, clubs, interviewing people...I even get to watch more anime these days. Just to get myself back in the spirit of things, I even wrote something anime-related for my website again:

I hope you enjoy it. More essays and articles to come...