Superheroes and Terrorism PhD: Volunteers Needed.

Hello,
My name is Nicholas Gray and I am a PhD student at the department of Geography, University College London. I am here today to ask you to help me with my PhD research project which centres on audience’s engagements with themes of terrorism within the Superhero genre of comic books. My notion of audience is somewhat broader than previous studies in that I wish to understand the views of comic fans AND those who may be considered non-readers or anti-fans of comic books. My research looks to constructions and understandings of terrorism through superhero comic books.

There are no right or wrong answers, you require no detailed knowledge of superhero comics to do this, only an opinion about them based upon your own thoughts towards them. All I am asking for is your opinions, thoughts and ideas about what Superheroes are and what they represent to you as an individual.

I was therefore wondering if you could spare approximately 15 minutes (absolute maximum) of your time to complete this questionnaire.

As a sweetener all those that complete the questionnaire will be entered into a draw for a £10 Amazon.co.uk (or Amazon.com) voucher.

The questionnaires are located at:

COMIC FANS QUESTIONNAIRE http://tinyurl.com/ComicPhD1

NON-READERS QUESTIONNAIRE http://tinyurl.com/ComicPhD2

These links will take you to the questionnaire (created using Google Documents, and links shortened courtesy of TinyURL) which should be viewable on all major internet browsers and many mobile phone browsers.

If you choose to take part and know of others local to you within household, family and friendship groups that may be interested also, then please feel free to pass the information of this project onto them.

Yours Gratefully

Nicholas Gray MA (Cantab) MSc (UCL)

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 1

therealOG

2

Hey, you're the guy that the Geography tutor mentioned in his talk at the UCL Open Day last year!!

Reply 2

UCLGeogPhD

OP

I am indeed probably that person, unless they were talking about my supervisor who is kind of Captain America obsessed. :smile:

Reply 3

UCLGeogPhD

OP

Just after opinions in a questionnaire described as "nicely designed", "painless to complete", and "interesting" by numerous participants :smile:

Done

I need that post shortened down please.

Reply 6

UCLGeogPhD

OP

Original post by S119234

Done

Thanks, your input is very much appreciated :smile:

~Done and done.

Done, hope it comes in handy :biggrin:

Done!

Rarely do I complain about utterly inconsequential academic topics, but that, I'm afraid, is one of them. No greater example is there of human futility. (It's not that I don't care about popular artforms, it just seems like you had to make an incredibly tenuous link with terrorism in order to get funding or feign that you're doing something of any great merit to the world etc. I shouldn't imagine that many people's political opinions are especially impacted by comic books, and those whose opinions are impacted in such a way probably have little power to act on them anyway -- and rightly bloody so! Maybe you can prove me wrong.)

Nonetheless, I've filled in the form. :biggrin:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 11

UCLGeogPhD

OP

Original post by jismith1989

Rarely do I complain about utterly inconsequential academic topics, but that, I'm afraid, is one of them. No greater example is there of human futility. (It's not that I don't care about popular artforms, it just seems like you had to make an incredibly tenuous link with terrorism in order to get funding or feign that you're doing something of any great merit to the world etc. I shouldn't imagine that many people's political opinions are especially impacted by comic books, and those whose opinions are impacted in such a way probably have little power to act on them anyway -- and rightly bloody so! Maybe you can prove me wrong.)

Nonetheless, I've filled in the form. :biggrin:

Well first of all, thanks for filling in the form.

Secondly, I don't feel that this is in anyway inconsequential, nor futile. There are those that find the oscillations of stars long dead fascinating; there are those who study a lake to tell us about global warming; and there are those who feel that Karl Marx tells us something new about the writings of Shakespeare. I however find it fascinating the way in which people articulate and understand the 'everyday', with particular reference to the wider geopolitical sphere.

This is a study into the effects of the 'mundane', in this case superhero comics, on how people (audiences) 'understand' a world larger than they could possibly gain first hand experience of. The everyday world is a system of ever changing discourses that we piece together to understand that which we encounter.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 12

faber niger

17

Original post by UCLGeogPhD

Well first of all, thanks for filling in the form.

Secondly, I don't feel that this is in anyway inconsequential, nor futile, in fact I find that a bit offensive. There are those that find the oscillations of stars long dead fascinating; there are those who study a lake to tell us about global warming; and there are those who feel that Karl Marx tells us something new about the writings of Shakespeare. I however find it fascinating the way in which people articulate and understand the 'everyday', with particular reference to the wider geopolitical sphere.

This is a study into the effects of the 'mundane', in this case superhero comics, on how people (audiences) 'understand' a world larger than they could possibly gain first hand experience of. The everyday world is a system of ever changing discourses that we piece together to understand that which we encounter.

Yes, ignore me, I'm in a particularly tetchy mood today. If you've found something that interests you and you're able to pursue it, what do my pontifications matter? Good luck with it.

Reply 13

mevidek

16

I came thinking I could dress up in a really tight superhero uniform :frown:

Reply 14

Joinedup

20

You're that guy in the film 'unbreakable' aren't you?

Reply 15

UCLGeogPhD

OP

Original post by mevidek

I came thinking I could dress up in a really tight superhero uniform :frown:

The beauty of this questionnaire is that there is no required dress code to complete it. Others may require or ask for a dress code, but on my project the online questionnaires will always be open to anyone. So you may indeed dress in as tight a superhero outfit as you like :smile:

Original post by Joinedup

You're that guy in the film 'unbreakable' aren't you?

Nah, that was Samuel L Jackson. He's a bit like me but a lot more Samuel-L-Jackson-like :P

(edited 12 years ago)

Done.
Good luck!

Original post by UCLGeogPhD

The beauty of this questionnaire is that there is no required dress code to complete it. Others may require or ask for a dress code, but on my project the online questionnaires will always be open to anyone. So you may indeed dress in as tight a superhero outfit as you like :smile:

Nah, that was Samuel L Jackson. He's a bit like me but a lot more Samuel-L-Jackson-like :P