Liam Espinoza-Zemlicka

Liam Espinoza-Zemlicka is pursuing a B.A. in Cinema and Television Arts with a minor in Anthropology at California State University, Northridge. Liam’s research interests include the place and experiences of marginalized peoples in popular culture fandom and utilize Goffman’s Stigma Theory and Mary Douglas’ Matter Out of Place to investigate how such people are “othered” in the fandom subculture, what fan communities deem as “other” and what that says about the values of their culture, and how ideological divisions in fandoms lead to conflict and the creation of “toxic fandom.” For the past four years, Liam has worked in his university’s anthropology office as a student assistant where his duties include a range of responsibilities both assisting professors and administrators.