Academic Archers Academic Archers

Crowd-sourcing material culture: A History of Ambridge in 100 ObjectsFelicity Macdonald-SmithThe term ‘material culture’ was probably first used by Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers in 1875, when he defined it as ‘the outward signs and symbols of particular ideas of the mind’. Pitt-Rivers donated his collection of ethnographic and archaeological objects to found the Pitt-Rivers’ Museum in Oxford. The museum now holds over 500,000 items, organised by functional categories. Since the mid-1970...

It’s Saturday, it must be the Archers!Saturday Academic Archers Group aka The Saturday GroupThis chapter is by fans, about fans, for fans. This chapter explores the creation, development and meaning of a Saturday morning fan group which met online through and beyond the initial COVID-19 lockdown. The chapter describes the initial phase of Saturday morning online sessions over a three-month period which comprised ‘formal’ presentations of papers from past conferences. These sessions were conve...

Teaching The Archers – creating new fans or turning them off?Caroline BirksIn September 2016, Media Magazine published an article that I had written about The Archers and fandom. In 2017, The Archers became a set text and my article became the go-to resource. I wondered how the students responded to The Archers. I asked the media teaching community on Facebook for classroom anecdotes. Common themes from the results were: students struggled with focused listening; teachers had been asked...

A Year in Ambridge: Introducing American Students to English Village Culture through The ArchersTimothy VercellottiGlobal cultures courses are a staple of general education requirements at American universities. Teaching a cultures course poses challenges, however, including appealing to students from all academic disciplines and building a cohesive learning experience around a somewhat amorphous topic. English village culture appeals to American students, some of whom have been exposed to th...

Gauging guerrilla engagement: the unexpected benefits of the Academic Archers conferenceCarenza LewisIs Academic Archers the best-ever Zoom conference? Attendees in 2021 seemed to think so. Marking the half-decade anniversary of Academic Archers, this chapter explores the benefits of the attending Academic Archers conference, using data from conference feedback in 2017 and 2021 and methods from current research into wellbeing in heritage contexts. The analysis shows this unique conference to ...

Cult and Culture: Transformative Fandom-de dum de dum de dumHelen BurrowsThe Archers fits a definition of ‘cult media’ in that it draws a niche audience, has nostalgia appeal and represents a subculture. Like other cult media, it has multiple active communities of people who identify as fans. However, it is also part of wider British culture, recognisable to and even referenced by many who would not count themselves as fans. In other fan groups, a myriad of artefacts, fanfiction and cosplay (...