#ghnosis

nice to meet you!

I'm a PhD student at Falmouth University writing her thesis/dissertation on the Ghost fandom here on tumblr. my research interests (other than Ghost) are vampires, horror, occulture, and heavy metal. I'm on the board of the International Society for Metal Music Studies, and I teach a gender studies 101 course at a local small liberal arts college.

if you would like to help me, or contribute to my research, here are some ways you can do so totally anonymously!

doing a one-hour, text-based tumblr chat interview about your experience in Ghost fandom (you will need to fill out a consent form, but I do not need your real name! just an email)

sending me fan works you've made - art, clothes, sewing, fic, headcanons, PowerPoints, etc (via an ask, an email, tagging me, whatever)

sharing my blog/this post/my post about interviews to your mutuals who are perhaps less shy than you

sending me an ask with a random Ghostly confession or thing that is most important about this fandom to you

this is my face! and my messy bedroom and my cat.

1. what is the process for doing an interview with you?

Send me an email ([email protected]) and I will send you the consent form you need to fill out. After you complete the consent form, I'll send you a link to sign up for an interview slot. Currently booking interviews in August.

I do not need your legal name!

On your interview date and time, I'll send you an email asking you to send me a DM. I don't keep track of tumblr usernames (on purpose, to preserve your anonymity), so it's easiest for me if you DM me at our agreed-upon time. Generally, interviews take place here in Tumblr DMs but I've also done Discord chats if you don't like Tumblr DMs. all interviews are text-based.

2. who are you looking for?

You must be over 18 to interview.

My study aims to investigate queer Ghost "space." If you're queer and into Ghost and into talking about Ghost with other people, your data is relevant to my study. If you're gay and into Ghost and left fandom, that's also relevant!

If you like Ghost on a non-fandom level (attended rituals, listen to them a lot, collect merch/vinyls, but don't spend much time thinking about the band beyond that), I really appreciate your interest, but interviewing might not be a good use of your time.

3. what is this all about?

What are you looking for in a participant?

Someone who spends time on Ghost tumblr. Readers, writers, artists, meme makers, headcanon creators, people who send lovely asks to others. If you're worried you "don't count" or won't be helpful to my study, I promise, you will be. If you have something to say about Ghost, I want to hear it.

You also need to be over 18, so that you can legally consent.

Do I need to give you my legal name?

Nope! I need you to sign a consent form before we schedule a time to talk, but you can use whatever name you'd like on that, or just write an X.

Will the interviews be anonymous?

Yes. The only information I'm collecting about you is your email (so I can contact you). You will be labeled in all my files as "Nameless Ghoul" and a number.

When are the interviews?

Starting in January 2024! Dates & times are up to you. Each interview will be an hour long and take place over Tumblr chat. The interviews are open-ended - we'll be talking about your participation in Ghost fandom. My dissertation is based on my experience as a queer Ghost fan and I want to make sure I'm "getting it right" so to speak by hearing from other members of the community.

What do I need to do to sign up?

Let me know you're interested by emailing me at [email protected] or DMing me on tumblr, or else just return a signed consent form - you can find more information in this post. If you need the consent form in a different file format, please let me know.

I'll send you the consent forms you need to read and sign.

To sign the consent form, just copy and paste the bottom part in an email back to me.

After you sign the form, I'll send you a link to set up the interview.

I have another question.

- ghnosis

@ghnosis thank you thank you!

book asks!

most disliked popular books?

Hated Heart of Darkness. Also I'm not sure how 'popular' The Silence of the Girls is, but I read it, and was not very impressed. It's a retelling of the Iliad from the womens' pov, but I don't think it really had much of a draw beyond that. I think it might be interesting for a younger reader, baby's first feminism. But otherwise, I found it came short on feminist themes, and the prose wasn't anything to write home about so. i'm also not overly fond of dystopian lit anymore. i tend not to seek it out-- i got pretty burnt out on the genre since it's pushed in both high school and undergrad curricula.

do you like historical books? which time period?

I used to really love historical fiction about the witch trials, the spanish inquisition, and british imperialism when i was a kid. nowadways, i don't really gravitate toward all of that anymore, but it's worth getting back into i think. only difference is back then, i was reading kids books and probably had an easier time reading.

when do you tend to read most?

since i pretty much only read for pleasure now, it's pretty inconsistent. whenever i can. i listen to both audiobooks, and i read books. back when i commuted to work, i'd listen to books on the way to work. i like to read during the day when i'm most alert, or early evening if/when i get a second wind (with a cup of tea... or several to help me focus)

is there a series/book that got you into reading?

Real young age, my bed time stories book. There was a version of the Emperor and the Nightingale and the art of Death over kneeling over the Emperor scared me so much that I wanted to get better at reading so I could understand the story and not be as scared. I also read a lot of Goosebumps, Junie B Jones, and Encyclopedia Brown back then.

for. over a year now. I have been working on this document my uni calls a "confirmation of route" which is sort of like a contextual review or a lit review and also a crystallization of my project.

so I have 10k words to talk about my methodology, the structure of my proposed thesis document, as well as the historical, theoretical, and contemporary contexts my thesis will build on and sit within.

and it has been. so fucking excruciating. trying to parse that out?

I know I'm looking at identity, freedom of expression, and some element of spirituality/spiritual freedom. I know I'm building on Black feminist ideas of identity and politics without biology. I know I'm looking at Gothic fashion and self-expression, as well as self-expression and community in punk. I know I'm looking at queerness and anonymity, or more like pseudo-anonymity... ghesties are playing at being ghouls bc to be ghouls is to literally wear a mask, to have a persona, right?

I think, at this point, three years in, if I had to explain my thesis to you in one sentence, it would be

Ghost is the carnivalesque space where gender and sexual euphoria can manifest.