Joleen Blom

Flyer for the event (in Portuguese) 11.10.2025 Livraria cassandra 17h Lançamento das publicações: Semente-Mundo Chão de Urtigas Desnaturadas e Inteligências Entretecidas + Lançamento do LP Chão de Urtigas EARTHSEA

This weekend Cassandra Bookshop in Porto hosted the launch of the book Inteligências Entretecidas, which includes my essay “Imitation Aesthetics”. The book documents the workshop series organized by Earthsea Association and is edited by Ana Carvalho, Isabel Carvalho, and Vera Carmo.

Yep, more or less the same for my book!

Did they return it to OA now too?

Update: never received a reply, but T&L did update their website with an online OA version. You can get it there, or my preference would be the usual OAPEN link:
library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

Of course, I just received an out-of-office mail from TF's contact point.

The book is still OA available through this link: library.oapen.org/handle/20.50...

I very much hope that this matter will be resolved soon. TF's mails before the acquisition claim nothing would change for the existing books. The book was originally published, and should remain so.

Just now I discovered that with the acquisition of Amsterdam University Press (AUP) by Taylor & Francis (TF), the eBook version of my book is sold for €41,95 on their website with no OAPEN link available. I hope that this is just a mistake on TF's part and I just contacted them for clarification.

Book on a table, cover reads: Cassie Brummitt From Harry Potter to the Wizarding World The Transfiguration of a Franchise

Back cover of the book: From Harry Potter to the Wizarding World is a salient, long overdue analysis of the wealth and breadth of the story world in the post-book era, covering everything from online platform Pottermore, to its presence in Universal theme parks, the Studio Tour in Leavesden, the Cursed Child stage play, as well as the fledging Fantastic Beasts film series. Cassie Brummitt also convinces by reckoning with Rowling’s authorial control over the franchise, ever more important in light of her hateful and controversial presence in recent years. – Sabrina Mittermeier, author of A Cultural History of Disneyland Theme Parks The Harry Potter franchise is not confined to just the page or the screen, but has been and continues to be reimagined and reconfigured through a number of extratextual products, texts, and experiences which surround and rework the Harry Potter texts. This book centres around the 2010s, or the ‘post-Potter era’, a period of unprecedented growth and reinvention for the franchise. Many of the franchising developments produced during this time operated according to distinct strategies: to consolidate the legacy of the Harry Potter series, or to extend the fictional universe into new settings, media and cultural forms. This book explores six such developments - J.K. Rowling’s authorship, the website Pottermore, the ‘Wizarding World of Harry Potter’ theme parks, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Watford, the Fantastic Beasts films, and the stageplay Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – to shine a spotlight on a franchise in flux.

We‘d all like to make Rowling and her franchise disappear, but her transphobia & large-scale political influence and the reboot TV show make it hard to ignore from a scholarly perspective. Cassie Brummitt has written a salient study on what became of Harry Potter post-book that I got to blurb:

OASIS Lunchtime Talk: Institutions of Play: Mapping Japan’s Indie Game Scene YouTube video by oasis_tuni

Bryan Hikari Hartzheim will give an Oasis Lunchtime Talk on “Institutions of Play: Mapping Japan’s Indie Game Scene" on Thursday 2 October at 12:00-13:00 EEST. Join us at Oasis, Tampere University, or follow online: www.youtube.com/live/IuTUH27...

Yyyessss, of course! I should've known!

I am very pleased to see this super insightful piece by @jingwangnyu.bsky.social out in @platformsnsociety.bsky.social! It examines how the “productization of APIs allows Alipay+ to extend its platform logic into global financial infrastructures.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1177/2976...

Oh gosh, to what do I have the honour? 😄

Just adding some tags to this symposium announcement! #larp, #gamestudies, #analoggames, #trpg

I feel like I should both be proud and apologize for you starting to play LADS. The game is, imo, very relevant to our earlier discussions on Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Disney Dreamlight Valley etc. But this one then has with cute boys!

The new issue of Countertext includes a paper by Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone and myself on libraries in digital games - their significances, (non-)functions, meanings. It's not open-access (boo), but ask and you shall receive
www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/2

Meet me next week in Bochum (Germany) speaking about the concept of virtuality from the perspective of my own research, somewhere inbetween virtual prototyping and sensing.

Waarom ik me nooit bezondig aan Miss World-argumenten ‘Ik ben al meerdere malen gevraagd om mijn medeleven te uiten en mijn afschuw over de moord op Charlie Kirk uit te spreken – en met mij vele anderen.’

Mijn nieuwste voor @mareonline.nl: www.mareonline.nl/opinie/waaro...

Congrats, Forest! Happy to hear that your effort on the book is paying off!

UK Gamescenes Symposium will take place in Tampere/Hybrid on 16th September. Program and details for joining are attached. 1/2

Features work from skypeeps @digdems.bsky.social @nitessine.bsky.social @merilainen.bsky.social @rosgakori.bsky.social @vkankainen.bsky.social

Oh the history makes it even more interesting. Yes, would love to join you 🌸

Wait, I dont know what dinners but I wanna join! 😄

Hand holding chopsticks with a disco ball at its end. With the words “East Asian Pop Culture: 30 Years of Transformation”

The programme for the East Asian Pop Culture workshop, documenting 30 years of transformation is now out. It features @tbaudinette.bsky.social as the keynote speaker this coming Sept @ NUS, Singapore.
ari.nus.edu.sg/events/east-...

#EastAsianPopCulture #FanStudies #AsianStudies

Jolly news: My new book with Jan-Noël Thon, "AI Aesthetics: AI-Generated Images between Artistics and Aisthetics", is now available as OPEN ACCESS with Routledge Focus. Check it all out:
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...
🥳

Hahaha, looking forward to that email

Congrats, Forest! :D

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

DiGRA 2026 Conference Announcement - DiGRA The DiGRA Executive Board is pleased to announce that DiGRA 2026 will be hosted at Maynooth University in Maynooth, Ireland from 14 to 18 June 2026.

DiGRA 2026 will be hosted at Maynooth University in Maynooth, Ireland from 14 to 18 June 2026.
The 2026 conference theme is Intersectional Pleasures.

digra.org/digra-2026-h...

Open Oproep Game Sector Professionalisation and Practice Development | Stimuleringsfonds For individual game professionals, game designers, game developers, or (temporary) collectives working within the Dutch games sector who wish to make their practice or studio future-proof.

For my fellow colleagues working in the Dutch game sector and interested in game development & design, the Stimuleringsfonds has a call for funding proposals you might be interested in:

www.stimuleringsfonds.nl/en/grants/op...

📚💻💰📝
If you are thinking about applying for an ERC grant and want inspiration, I've updated my paper where I tell how I got mine.

It now includes the application (B1+B2), the manuscript for the presentation I gave at my interview, the slides, and the nine peer reviews.

pure.au.dk/portal/en/pu...

Always still babies in spirit! 😻