Michael Kackman writes: >Clearly, though, there's an underlying problem. We ought to better >discipline the boundaries of the field -- lest the Almighty notice that >UNDERGRADUATES are beginning to care enough about writing to develop their >own journal. Well, Sokal - one of my all time heroes - quite spectacularly outed what was very much a postgraduate journal in proving that its editors were willing to publish complete bull----, so why not give the little ones a try? >I mean, they're not even credentialed, or anything. Next thing we know, a >group of renegade youth will develop a journal of Sokol Studies. Even though at age 31, I might struggle to qualify as 'renegade youth' (driving a Ford Mondeo, playing cricket and drinking Plymouth Gin with tonic and lots of Angostura doesn't really fit that stereotype, somehow!), I'd hope that I could nevertheless be considered for the editorial board! With tongue removed from cheek, though, how is the term 'Buffy studies' supposed to distinguish the methodology (or -ies) used to analyse the cultural, industrial, economic or political effect of this particular TV programme from that which is used to analyse any other? Are the people who do this work actually doing anything significantly different enough to justify the label, or does the label simply indicate the existence of a bandwagon? And if the former, does it have any significance or meaningful application beyond analysing this one television programme? For example, I wouldn't describe the research I'm in the process as starting as 'Lee de Forest studies' - rather, I'm using tried and tested methodologies in order to try and understand how this individual and the technologies he developed influenced the introduction of sound in the British film industry through his London-based franchise operation. So I'd stick at calling myself an empiricist historian. Granted, that doesn't involve any trendy jargon or high fallutin' posts or isms, but at least it does what it says on the tin. Leo ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu