about me
Dr Briony Hannell (she/her)
I’m Briony and I’m an early-career feminist researcher and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester, UK. I completed my PhD in Politics at the University of East Anglia, UK, in 2021, and worked as a teacher and researcher in the Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield from 2021-2024. My research interests span across (digital) media, culture, and communications, feminist sociology, cultural studies, internet studies, digital sociology, youth studies, and fan studies. I am primarily interested in young people, citizenship and participation, and digital (anti)feminisms. My first book, Feminist Fandom, is out now.
My research on young people, feminism and anti-feminism, fan culture, digital culture, and Tumblr has been featured in The Observer, Vice, The Independent, Dazed, WIRED, BBC Radio, and more. For press-related and other enquires, please email me at briony.hannell@manchester.ac.uk.
Reviews of Feminist Fandom
“While the pedagogical value of digitally-mediated fandoms is often asserted, here Briony Hannell critically engages with the complexities and contradictions of how a feminist pedagogy functions in online fan spaces. Through its exploration of a range of practices and debates from reflexive un/learning to “SJW fatigue” in these communities, this book complicates exclusively celebratory claims about fandom’s links to rising feminist consciousness. While Hannell’s arguments are deeply attuned to the socio-technical features of Tumblr, her sophisticated theoretical, methodological and analytic approach is an exemplar of critical and nuanced digital feminist media analysis that makes this book a must-read in the field.”
— Alison Harvey, author of Feminist Media Studies (2019) and Associate Professor of Communications, York University, Canada
“Fandom as a pathway to feminism is understudied, yet after reading Feminist Fandom, the two seem inseparable. This book offers a compelling account of the intersection of digital cultures, feminisms and popular culture. As such, it is recommended reading for scholars in participatory culture, audience studies, gender studies, feminist studies and fandom studies. This is a book about the power of stories, the importance of Tumblr as a platform of first-person narration and the centrality of storytelling for social movements and their reinvention.”
— Katrin Tiidenberg, Professor of Participatory Culture, Tallin University, Estonia
Briony Hannell 