Comments on: Friday Q&A: Jason Tocci on his Geek Cultures dissertation

By: Geek Studies » Geek Studies in Philadelphia & St. Louis

Geek Studies » Geek Studies in Philadelphia & St. Louis — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:24:26 +0000

[...] to my old stomping grounds in Philly this semester, but I’m there in spirit: Over at Technically Philly, Brian James Kirk offers a Q&A with me about my dissertation research. Thanks to Brian for [...]

By: Jason T

Jason T — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:16:49 +0000

In response to David’s question, I address this quite a bit in the dissertation, though the short answer is this: There is some overlap between geek stereotypes/mannerisms and a variety of personality characteristics and neurological conditions, but there are too many people who self-identify as geeks ��and too many such characteristics and conditions that get lumped together when suggesting that there’s something inherently geeky about certain modes of thought � for this to really map neatly enough onto geek identity more broadly to be a coherent theory. That said, David Anderegg discusses this more at length in Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them, which you may find interesting to read.

(I’m curious to know what kind of ethical questions you mean, though. Ethical questions in terms of how to conduct research? In terms of how to conceptualize geeks at all? In terms of how Beauty and the Geek handles recruitment?)

By: David Kaplan

David Kaplan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:43:22 +0000

I’d be curious to know how autism disorders play into the “geek” world. Beauty and the Geek’s awkward stars may have Asperger’s or something. That would raise some serious ethical questions, I think.

I’m not sure what the statistics are, but I’d be willing to bet that a highly skewed ratio of self-identified geeks also suffer from a variety of mental maladies like anxiety, depression, etc.

David Kaplan