Are you in your 20s?
Do you currently live in Australia?
Do you culturally identify as Australian?
Do you regularly consume Japanese and Korean pop culture such as anime or K-pop?
Are you a fan of BTS?

Then I want to talk to you!

My name is Thomas Baudinette and I am a Lecturer in Japanese Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. I am currently seeking participants to be interviewed for my research project “Investigating the inter-relationships of Japanese and Korean pop-culture fandom in Australia.” The interview will discuss your understandings of Japanese and Korean popular culture in the context of the Australian media landscape and will also focus on how consuming these media makes you feel. The interview will also provide you an opportunity to discuss your BTS fandom with an academic fan of this influential Korean band!

Interviews will be conducted face-to-face at a time and location convenient to you, or will be conducted over the Zoom conference management system (it works like Skype). Interviews will last roughly one hour, and will be audio-recorded with your consent. Specific details concerning the interview procedures and ethical obligations of the chief investigator can be found in the following attachment: Consent Form and Interview information. Please make sure you read this form to understand what kinds of questions will be discussed, as well as what topics of conversation will be off-limits!

Participation in the project is expected to cause minimal risk or discomfort to participants.

If you are interested in participating, please download the informed consent form via the hyperlink above and contact me at tom[dot]baudinette[at]mq[dot]edu[dot]au (replace the dots and at with . and @ respectively). Feel free to ask any questions you may have before deciding whether you wish to participate! Please share this information with people you think may be interested in participating!