Tanya Cook, PhD

Cook, T. and Joseph, K. 2023. Fandom Acts of Kindness: A Heroic Guide to Activism, Advocacy, and Doing Chaotic Good. Ben Bella Press.

Recent work:

Coauthored work:

Munnelly, Patrick, Tanya Cook, and Kaela Joseph. 2025. The Power of Seeing Yourself in Another: X-men, Audiences, and Queer Rights through X-men ‘97, in The Routledge Companion to Superhero Studies, Piatti-Farnell and Wilson, editors. Taylor & Francis, New York.

Cook, T., Joseph, K. M., McCoy, R. T., & Bongar, B. 2025. Fandom and Religion. In Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior (pp. 1-8). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

Joseph, Cook, and Karakanias, 2024. "Are you watching The Godfather?" : Patriarchal Approaches to Fandom in Barbie.

Joseph and Cook, 2023. "Stormfront: Thunderous Warning," in Zubernis and Snyder (eds) Supes Ain't Always Heroes: Inside the Complex Characters and Twisted Psychology in The Boys.

Strong, M. T., Cook, T., Belet, L. A., & Calarco, P. (2023). Changing The World: How Comics and Graphic Novels Can Shift Teaching. Humanity & Society, 47(2), 245-257.

Solo Work:

Cook, T. N. 2025. XENITES, COMMUNITY AND ACTIVISM. Classical Receptions and Impact of Xena: Warrior Princess, 18, 153.

Cook, T. (2021). 'It’s a gift... and a curse’: How COVID reframed our understanding of disability as an intersectional identity. Sociation, 21(1), 89-98.

Cook, T. N. (2020). ‘Polite, no chill’ for the win: How Emily Andras engaged fans and overcame problematic tropes in Wynonna Earp. Journal of Screenwriting, 11(3), 347-362.

Cook, T. N. (2019). ‘All dwarfs are bastards’: Game of Thrones as disability studies pedagogy. Journal of Fandom Studies, 7(1), 35-46.

Presentations 2025 and 2026

November 14 & 15: Queer Journeys in North American Culture: Innsbuck, Austria

• The Journey has Always been Queer: Exploring Journey/Adventure Stories as Points of Representation and Resistance (with Patrick Munnelly)

February 25-28, 2026: 47th Annual Southwest Popular Culture Association Meeting (SWPCA)

• Xena, Forever Our Princess: The Fandom 30 Years Later

• With Kaela Joseph, “Everybody's so Punk on the Internet:” What Online Discourse on Taylor Swift’s Life of a Showgirl Tells us About Social Movements, Media, and Activism

It’s A Fandom Thing Pod Appearances