Effie [she/her]
I am a Media Studies PhD candidate in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. I hold a Master’s degree in English literature from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
My research posits that fans, specifically of YA media objects, are engaging in an innovative, multimodal form of digital storytelling on new media platforms, such as TikTok, which should be understood as a new, non-text-based form of fanfiction. This project builds off of prior work on self-insert fanfiction across traditional text-based platforms and on self-insert fanvids (fanmade videos in which the fan/creator inserts themselves, physically, into the story world) on media-based platforms. This new form of fanfiction allows for a hypermediacy in fan creation that is difficult to find in other online, text-based spaces. But can it be defined as fanfiction? And how does it shift the intricacies of fan practices, relationships, and labor? This project engages an interdisciplinary framework informed by digital humanities, intersectional feminism, ethics of care, and fan and platform studies.
In Progress Projects
Currently, I am working on my dissertation proposal and a special issue focused on fandoms and platforms. Additionally, I moderate several Discord communities focused on (1) graduate students in fan studies and (2) digital humanities in fan studies. The latter community also hosts a reading/working group.
My work has been published in Transformative Works and Cultures and Humanities. Additionally, I am the founder and editor of Fterota Logia, an online young adult literary magazine, as well as the Reviews Editor for the Journal of Fandom Studies. I am also the Outreach and Communications Editor for Transformative Works and Cultures and I have managed the Facebook presence of literary magazine, AGNI, for several years.
Western University
Teaching Assistant (with tutorial section)
MIT 2025B: Research Methods for the Digital Age [winter] (2021-2022)
MIT 1025F: First Year Foundations for MIT [fall] (2021-2022)
MIT 1020E: Intro Media Studies [year-long] (2020-2021)
MIT 1020E: Intro to Media Studies [year-long] (2019-2020)
University of Massachusetts Boston
Instructor of Record
ENG 273G: The Art of Fiction (F2016)
ENG 262G: The Art of Literature (F2015, S2016)
Teaching Assistant
ENG 258 Intro to World Cinema (S2015)
Other Teaching Experience
2020-present Graduate Fellow: Huron University Writing Services
2017-present Freelance Tutor [K-12, College, SAT/ACT Prep]
2017-2019 Academic/College Essay/Test Prep Tutor: JBG Educational Group
Research Experience
2022 Platforming Culture: Accessing Art and Heritage through Google Arts & Culture
Funded by Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Art, Culture and Global Relations
PI: Dr. Sarah Smith
Completed a targeted assessment of the collections represented on the platform
2021 Desire in Sight: The Aesthetics of Knowledge Organization
SSHRC Insight Grant research project
PI: Dr. Melissa Adler
Helped set up virtual exhibit using ARCGIS StoryMaps; began coordinating in-person exhibits in local Ontario libraries
2019-2022 Dr. Chris Marquis (now at Cambridge University)
Proofread and edited chapters of Dr. Marquis upcoming book on sustainable business; created a narrative out of original interview transcripts and research content
2020-2022 What Were Comics? Research Project
SSHRC-funded research project
PIs: Dr. Benjamin Woo, Dr. Bart Beatty, Dr. Nick Sousanis
Numbered comic book panels; numbered dialogue in comic book panels [200+ media objects]
2020 “The Use of Tags in Social Media: Deixis,
Indexicality and the organization of Digital Reality”
A project of The CulturePlex Lab at Western University
Conducted a literature review relevant to the
subject
2017-2019 Dr. Chris Marquis (Harvard Kennedy School / Cornell SC Johnson College of Business)
As Dr. Marquis’ RA: conducted extensive research, interviewed participants, and drafted a non-fiction manuscript on B Lab and B Corporations; published in September 2020 titled “Better Business: How the B Corp Movement is Remaking Capitalism”; sold more than 5,000 copies in the first six months
• Winner of the 2021 Axiom Business Book Awards Gold Medal in Business Ethics
• Winner of the 2021 Responsible Research in Business and Management Award
• Finalist for the Porchlight Books Book of the Year
2015-2016 Dr. Elizabeth Fay (University of Massachusetts Boston)
Editorial Assistant to Dr. Fay on the New Urban Atlantic book series, under Palgrave Macmillan.
2015 50th Anniversary Oral History Project (University of Massachusetts Boston)
Compiled and curated an oral history project to commemorate the school’s 50th anniversary.
Publications
Edited Special Issue Journals
Alberto, Maria, Effie Sapuridis, and Lesley Willard, eds. “Fandom and Platforms.” Special Issue Transformative Works and Cultures, forthcoming in Spring 2024.
Refereed Journal Articles
Sapuridis, Effie, and Maria K. Alberto. “Self-Insert Fanfiction as Digital Technology of the Self.” Humanities, vol. 11, no. 3, May 2022, p. 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/h11030068.
Sapuridis, Effie. “Gendered Fairy Tale Heroics: Ginny Weasley in The Source.” Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 30. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2019.1687
Marquis, Chris, and Effie Sapuridis. “Danone North America: The World's Largest B Corporation.” HKS Case Program, Harvard Kennedy School, 26 Apr. 2019, https://case.hks.harvard.edu/danone-north-america-the-worlds-largest-b-corporation/.
Multimedia
Sapuridis, Effie. “Wealth and Heteronormative Romance Tropes in Harry Potter Fan Fiction” [multimedia]. In "Fan Studies Pedagogies," edited by Paul Booth and Regina Yung Lee, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 35. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2079.
Conference Activity
Invited Speaker
“Beyond Consent: Building Movements that Sustain Us.” Students For Consent Culture speaker series, Virtual, May 2022.
“Women in Leadership.” American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association: Montreal Chapter, Virtual, May 2022.
Conference Presentations
“Fandom on New Media Platforms: Exploring the Potential of Networked Storytelling.” Young Adult Studies Association, Virtual, November 2022.
“Fanon Characters, Cross-Platform Conversations, and New Media.” Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual, October 2022.
“Advocating for Antiracist Approaches to Writing in Canadian Contexts.” Canadian Writing Centers Association, Virtual, May 2022.
“Understanding Digital Storytelling on New Media Platforms as Fanfiction.” Mediations graduate student lecture series, Virtual, April 2022.
“Digital Methods and Digital Fan Practices.” Moderated by Black, Suzanne and Effie Sapuridis. Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual, October 2021.
“My Blood Status is Purer than Yours!: (Problematic) Hyperreality within Fanfiction and Fandom Communities.” Congress of the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, Virtual, June 2021.
“If I Went to Hogwarts…: Tiktok, Self-Insert Fanvids, and Fandom’s Face-to-Face with Fan Visibility.” Popular Culture Association, Virtual, June 2021.
“Pureblood for a Day: Fetishization of Wealth and the Subversion of Heteronormative Romance Tropes in Harry Potter Fanfiction.” Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual, October 2020.
“"So Much More Romantic!": Anne Shirley, the hyperreal troubadour, and Romantic Victorian Medievalism in Anne of Green Gables.” Medievalism Transformed, Virtual, September 2020.
“Crafting Daphne Greengrass in Fanon: An Analysis of the Creation of a Minor Role Character through Fanfiction.” Fan Studies Network North America, Chicago, October 2019.
Scholarships and Awards
2022-2024 SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship
2021-2022 Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2020-2021 Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2019-2020 Dean's Entrance Scholarship
Service
University
2022-2024 University Board of Governors – Voting Member
2020-2022 University Senate – Graduate Senator
2019-2021 Union Steward (PSAC 610)
Society of Graduate
Students
2021-2022 Vice President Student Services
2020-2021 Speaker
Faculty of
Information & Media Studies
2020-present Member of the FIMS Peer Mentor Program
2020-present Co-Chair of the mediations Graduate Lecture
Series Committee
2021-2022 PhD Representative on the FIMS Faculty Council
2020-2021 PhD Representative on the Media Studies Programming
Committee
Other
2021-present Co-Founder of the Safe Campus Coalition
2020-present Racial Equity and Anti-Racism Working Group
(Huron Writing Services)
2018-present Social Media Staffer, Fanlore.Org
2020-2018 Executive at American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association
Membership
CCA -- Canadian Communication Association [2019-present]
YASA -- Young Adult Studies Association [2020-present]
SCMS -- Society for Cinema and Media Studies [2019-present]
PCA -- Popular Culture Association [2019-present]
FSNNA -- Fan Studies North America [2018-present]
Editorial Experience
2021-present Outreach and Communications Editor (Transformative Works and Cultures)
2019-present Reviews Editor (Journal of Fandom Studies)
2017-present Founder & Editor in Chief (Fterota Logia)
2015-present Social Media Manager and Editorial Assistant (AGNI)
2015 Editorial Assistant (Consequence)
2010-2013 Editorial Assistant (Shoreline Press)
Additional Skills
Grant-writing
Basic Python skills
Basic Latex skills
Qualtrics
Languages
English (native)
French (fluent)
Greek (fluent)
