Hi!
I’m Maria K. Alberto, a teacher and scholar.
I’m interested in the ways that texts shape truths in popular culture, especially during moments of changing franchise interests and increasing digitality. My research explores how examples take shape across fantasy, science fiction, and fandom communities.
I earned my PhD in English at the University of Utah, where I wrote my dissertation about the fiction of texts and canonicity underlying the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, particularly as seen with drow.
I currently work as an Assistant Professor of English at Richland Community College, where I teach composition, technical writing, and literature survey courses. I am also on the organizing committee at Fan Studies Network North America (FSNNA), helping plan and run our annual online conference.
If you have questions, I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to reach out!
the tl;dr
📚 in a nutshell: pop culture canons treat storyworlds like meta-texts that exist for audiences to explore, not that producers create
🔎research interests: genre fiction and its material forms (pulps, paperbacks), analog gametexts, fan communities, digital platforms
🖊️current projects: co-edited collection on tabletop roleplaying games and fan studies; book proposal for monograph on D&D novels