Paul Booth is a professor of
Media and Cinema Studies in the College of Communication. He received his PhD in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He researches fandom, games, technology, popular culture and cultural studies. He teaches classes in media studies, television narrative, convergence and digital media, board games, popular culture, new media, communication technology, and participatory cultures.
He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including
Board Games as Media (Bloomsbury, 2021);
The Fan Studies Primer (University of Iowa Press, 2021);
Watching Doctor Who (Bloomsbury, 2019); the
Wiley Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (Wiley, 2018);
Crossing Fandoms: SuperWhoLock and the Contemporary Fan Audience (Palgrave, 2016);
Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games (2015, Bloomsbury);
Seeing Fans: Representations of Fandom in Media and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2016);
Controversies in Digital Ethics (Bloomsbury, 2016);
Playing Fans: Negotiating Fandom and Media in the Digital Age (Univ. of Iowa Press, 2015); and
Digital Fandom 2.0: New Media Studies (Peter Lang, 2016; 2010). He has also published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
Booth is also the organizer of the annual DePaul Pop Culture Conference, where fans and scholars come together in thoughtful discussion of popular culture texts. Past conference topics have included Disney, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Supernatural, Doctor Who, slasher films and superheroes. The 2023 conference is focused on time travel.
He is currently enjoying a cup of coffee.
Books
- Board Games as Media (Bloomsbury, 2021)
- The Fan Studies Primer: Research, Method, Ethics (with Rebecca Williams) (University of Iowa Press, 2021)
- Watching Doctor Who (with Craig Owen Jones) (Bloomsbury, 2020)
- Poaching Politics (with Amber Davisson, Ashley Hinck, and Aaron Hess) (Peter Lang, 2018)
- Wiley Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (Blackwell Publishing, 2018)
- Crossing Fandoms: SuperWhoLock and the Contemporary Fan Audience (Palgrave, 2017)
- Digital Fandom 2.0: New Media Studies (Peter Lang Publishing, 2016)
- Seeing Fans: Representations of Fandom in Media and Popular Culture (Ed. with Lucy Bennett) (Bloomsbury, 2016)
- Controversies in Digital Ethics (Ed. w. Amber Davisson) (Bloomsbury, 2016)
- Game Play: Paratextual in Contemporary Board Games (Bloomsbury, 2015)
- Playing Fans: Negotiating Fandom and Media in the Digital Age (University of Iowa, 2015)
- Fan Phenomena: Doctor Who (Editor) (Intellect Books, 2013)
- Time on TV: Temporal Displacement and Mashup Television (Peter Lang Publishing, 2012)
- Digital Fandom: New Media Studies (Peter Lang Publishing, 2010)
Edited Special Issue Journals
Chapters in Books
- Booth, Paul. “Outside the Box: The Doctor Who Tourist Experience.” In Doctor Who: New Dawn, edited by Andrew O’Day, Matt Hills, and Brigid Cherry. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
- Booth, Paul. “Playing for Time.” In Rerolling Boardgames, edited by Esther MacCallum-Stewart and Douglas Brown. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020.
- Booth, Paul. “Disney Princess Leia: The Franchise Awakens.” In Disney’s Star Wars: Forces of Participation & Reception, edited by Richard McCulloch and William Proctor. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press. 2019.
- Booth, Paul. “The PushmiPullu of Fandom.” In Consumer Identities and Digital Culture, edited by Candice Roberts and Myles Ethan Lascity. Bristol, UK: Intellect. 2019.
- Booth, Paul. “Transmedia Fandom and Participation: The Nuances and Contours of Fannish Participation.” In The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies, edited by Matthew Freeman and Renira Rampazzo Gambarato, 279–287. New York, NY: Routledge, 2019.
- Booth, Paul. “Crossing over the Atlantic: SuperWhoLock as Transnational Fan Text.” In Contemporary Transatlantic Television Drama, edited by Michele Hilmes, Matt Hills, and Roberta Pearson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Booth, Paul. “The Transcultural Fan: Branding Series 8 Doctor Who in America.” In Doctor Who: Twelfth Night: Adventures in Time and Space with Peter Capaldi, edited by Andrew O’Day, 180–200. London: IB Tauris, 2019.
- “Waves of Fandom in the Fan Studies Class.” In Fandom as Classroom Practice, edited by Katherine Howell, 113–125. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2018.
- “Audiences and Fan Studies: Technological Communities and Their Influences on Narrative Ecosystems.” In Reading Contemporary Serial Television Universes: Narrative Ecosystems, edited by Paola Brembilla and Ilaria A. De Pascalis, 57–73. London: Routledge, 2018.
- “A Thin Line between Love and Hate.” In Everybody Hurts: Transitions, Endings and Resurrections in Fan Cultures, edited by Rebecca Williams, 75–86. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2018.
- “Board Gamers as Fans.” In The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom, edited by Suzanne Scott and Melissa Click, 428–436. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
- “BioShock: Rapture through Transmedia.” In The Rise of Transtexts: Challenges and Opportunities, edited by Benjamin W. L. Derhy and Melanie Bourdaa, 153–168. London: Routledge, 2016.
- “Computers and Culture.” In A Companion to Popular Culture, edited by Gary Burns, 223–242. Boston, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2016.
- Afterword to Crowdfunding the Future, edited by Lucy Bennett, Bertha Chin, and Bethan Jones, 239-251. New York: Peter Lang, 2015.
- “‘Harmonious Synchronicity’ and Eternal Darkness: Temporal Displacement in Video Games.” In Time Travel in Popular Media, edited by Matthew Jones and Joan Ormond, 134–148. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Pub, 2015.
- “Doctor Who." Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies. (Ed. Krin Gabbard) Oxford University Press, 2015.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Jacobs, Naomi, and Paul Booth. “Converging Experiences, Converging Audiences. An Analysis of Doctor Who on Twitch.” Convergence, 2021.
- Booth, Paul. “Between Fan and Player: Branded Escape Rooms as Media Texts.” Popular Communication. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2020.1772972
- “When Tourism Comes to You (But You Still Have to Go Get It, Dawg): The Rickmobile and Transmedia Tourism/Fandom.” JOMEC 14 (2019): 91-105
- "Framing Alterity: Reclaiming Fandom’s Marginality.” Transformative Works and Cultures 28 (2018).
- “Tumbling or Stumbling: Misadventures with Tumblr in the Classroom.” Transformative Works and Cultures 27 (2018).
- “Missing a Piece: (The Lack of) Board Game Scholarship in Media Studies.” Velvet Light Trap 81 (2018): 57–60.
- “Playing by the Rules: Storium, Star Wars, and Ludic Fandom.” Journal of Fandom Studies 5, no. 3 (2017): 267–284.
- “Fans’ List-making: Memory, Influence, and Argument in the ‘Event’ of Fandom.” Matrizes 9, no. 2 (2015): 85–107.
- “Fandom: The Classroom of the Future.” Transformative Works and Cultures 19 (2015).
- with Lucy Bennett. “Exploring Fandom and the Performance Paradigm: An Interview with Kurt Lancaster, Author of Interacting with ‘Babylon 5.’” Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 18 (2015).
- “Crowdfunding: A Spimatic Application of Digital Fandom.” New Media and Society 17, no. 2 (2015): 149–166.
- “Spreadable Media: A Roundtable.” Louisa Stein, moderator. Transformative Works and Cultures 17 (2014).
- “Playing Dead: Transmedia Pathos and Plot in The Walking Dead Board Games.” Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media 7 (2014): 20–35.
- with Shira Chess. “Lessons Down a Rabbit Hole: Alternate Reality Gaming in the Classroom.” New Media and Society 16, no. 6 (2014): 1002–1017.
- Booth, Paul. “Board, Game, and Media: Interactive Board Games as Multimedia Convergence.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 22, no. 6 (2014): 647–660.
Professor Booth is the 2018 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award, and a 2014 "Engaged Professor Award." He has also been honored by the PCA/ACA with their annual Inge Award for Best Comics Paper at the 2012 Popular Culture Association conference. The winning paper, "The Sand/Wo/Man: The Unstable Worlds of Gender in Neil Gaiman's Sandman Series," co-authored with grad student Ally Brisbin, examines gender issues in Gaiman's Sandman comic book series from the late 1980s-1990s.
- CMN 102 Introduction to Mass Communication
- CMN 396 Capstone
- CMNS 366/MCS 366 Communication, Technology and Society
- CMNS 545/MCS 520 Communication and Technology
- LSP 110 Discover Chicago: Chicago in/on Film; Media in Chicago
- LSP 112 Focal Point Seminar: The Fifty Year History of Doctor Who: Fandom and Production
- MCS 260: Introduction to Transmedia Storytelling: Building a Narrative World
- MCS 271 Media and Cultural Studies
- MCS 349 Special Topics in Film: Science Fiction On Screen
- MCS 351 Special Topics in Television: Long Form Narrative
- MCS 351/520; ENG 386; AMS 395 Special Topics in Television: Time Travel on Television
- MCS 351/520; AMS 395 Special Topics in Television: Writing Television Criticism
- MCS 352/AMS 395 Special Topics in New Media: Digital Culture and New Media
- MCS 352 Special Topics in New Media: Games and Communities
- MCS 352 Special Topics in New Media: Participatory Fandom and Popular Culture
- MCS 352 Special Topics in New Media: Transmedia Culture
- MCS 353/520; ENG 386 Special Topics in Media: Monsters in Popular Culture
- MCS 361 Fandom and Participatory Culture
- MCS 520 Special Topic: Alternate Reality Gaming
- MCS 520 Special Topic: Complex Narratives
- MCS 520 Special Topics: Fandom and Active Audiences
- MCS 530 New Media and Culture
- MCS 550 Fandom and Active Audiences
- MCS 592 Independent Study