Film & Culture Scholar J.D. Connor to Join ROFLCon!

The past few days have been great for us in terms of bolstering our academic cred. As Natalie was saying, we’re aiming to make this a solidly academic discussion of the internet and culture, and not just a convention with costume contests or something. We’ll be having a ton of fun, for sure, but the ultimate goal of ROFLCon is to study this new and growing form of cultural expression in depth. To help us with that mission, we’ve been talking to various academics and scholars who can offer some perspective or thoughts about what these memes might mean to culture as a whole. So get pumped for a thought-provoking weekend.

Along those lines, amazingly enough, we recently got word that Harvard’s own English/Visual and Environmental Studies rock star, J.D. Connor, will be speaking at our humble conference. He teaches courses on Hollywood and the 1960s in both departments, and is also a pretty ridiculous fountain of knowledge about internet culture. Prior to joining the professorial ranks at Harvard, he was the ‘Fraymaster’ on one of my favorite means of procrastination, Slate. The Fray is quite a reader discussion forum; you can see how it’s different from normal flame-y web forums here. We are really, really stoked about his involvement with the conference, both in terms of his incredible behind-the-scenes advice and, now, his being on a panel, moderating discussions, and/or making sure the conference doesn’t devolve into a silly famefest. Badass in so many ways.

the man himself — don’t mess.