Author Meets Readers invites Carleton students and the community to join an informal discussion on new books published by members of the Carleton University Faculty of Public Affairs.

About the Book

Getting a Life: The Social Worlds of Geek Culture considers the real people who have invested time and resources to make geek culture what it is. The book recentres our understanding of geek culture on the everyday lives of its participants, drawing on fieldwork in comic book shops, game stores, and conventions, including in-depth interviews with ordinary members of the overlapping communities of fans and enthusiasts. Benjamin Woo shows how geek culture is a set of interconnected social practices that are associated with popular media. He argues that typical depictions of mass-mediated entertainment as something that isolates and pacifies its audiences are flawed because they do not account for the conversations, relationships, communities, and identities that are created by engaging with the products of mass culture.

About the Author

Benjamin Woo is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Carleton University and Director of the Comic Cons Research Project. Getting a Life is his third book.

About the Panel

Woo will be joined on stage by Neil Gerlach (Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Program Director for the Bachelor of Global and International Studies at Carleton University) and Kim Hoang (Cartoonist, game designer and facilitator).

This event is part of the Ottawa International Writer’s Festival.