iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Teaching intro to InDesign, have handy worksheets so students learn by doing, one student figured out the simple task, the others asked how he’d done it, he said “I actually read the worksheet instead of skimming it”, chaos ensued 🙃

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Yes please tell me this horror will end

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

It seems the snacks I was eating nonstop in the lead up to PhD submission have become tainted and don’t hit the same anymore… not happy about it

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

PhD submitted Visa approved Assessment briefs submitted Sobbing pending…

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

They posted a vid bottle feeding it I think he’s only like 5 weeks he’s tiny

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I’ve had to take it out of my thesis but if there’s any discarded thing that I make sure to publish just because I like it and think it’s cool it’ll 100% be the chunk where I compare concerts to strip shows, mark my words

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

#academicsky Things you wish you did/checked in the last days before submitting PhD? Things you’re glad you did/checked?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I knew I recognised him somewhere!

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I need everyone to look at the insane kitten my fascist brother just got bc I don’t talk to him but I can’t not react to this

An obviously tiny black kitten with wide bugged blue eyes and scruffy fur

An obviously tiny black kitten with wide bugged blue eyes and scruffy fur, closer to the camera, looking cross eyed, and lifting one paw

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The thesis is complete again, she will be under the word count again (-4000 words) within the next 11 hours, she will hopefully not need that many adjustments after a supervisor read of the new updates, and she will be submitted on Friday 🙃🥲

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Things happening in the next 10 days: Phd submission Visa decision expected Article revisions due Assessment brief revisions due Things happening immediately after: Sobbing Packing my house and looking for a new apartment, hopefully in the country still Haircut

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

What does it say about my writing/analysis/brain if I frequently have to flip my arguments back to front over the course of editing them?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I can tell my adhd brain is getting fed up with all the “finishing” work of the PhD bc I’m currently thinking about adding new analysis to the last chapter, when it’s due in 10 days and my last draft was only 6 words under the word count…

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Zohran Mamdani isn’t going to end capitalism but god is he exemplifying the “puppies and ice cream for everyone” vs “leopards eating people’s faces” party lines… Maybe someday party democrats will stop trying to also eat people’s faces and realise how profitable free ice cream is

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Baby’s first real citation 🥹🥹🥹 doi.org/10.1386/ajpc...

A screenshot of the journal article cover page: The Swift Shift - promotional marketing (Taylor's version): How social media and fan engagement shape album release strategies

A screenshot of page 59 that includes citation to my article:

'Cultivating Connection': Parasociality as participation
Historically, discussions of parasociality have tended to pathologize fans, framing emotional attachment to media figures as symptomatic of delusion or dependency (Horton and Richard Wohl 1956). However, Hills (2015) and Bucy (2024) argue that such readings overlook the productive, affective and communal dimensions of fan engagement. Within digital marketing ecosystems, parasocial relationships function not as distortions of reality but as participatory mechanisms through which fans perform identity, belonging and creative expression. Bucy (2024) observes that fans are generally aware that the sense of intimacy they share with a music artist is an illusion; yet, this awareness does not diminish its signifi-cance. Instead, it establishes a framework for appropriate fan behaviour, defining how fans relate to the multiple personas of an artist such as Swift, and how they negotiate the emotional 'distance between themselves and the figure of their admiration. In Swift's case, these connections are not only acknowledged but also actively cultivated by her and her team, positioning intimacy as both an emotional bond and a deliberate strategy within the promotional process.
Although the curated dataset did not include instances of direct fan recog-nition, the wider corpus included public examples from the same promotional period that demonstrate how Swift and her team, particularly through Taylor

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Nothing like a visa application to make a girl with ocd (and left wing politics) panic (and rage) 🙃🫠

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Very me-core to have figured out the narrative of my 100,000 word PhD thesis 12 hours before I’m meant to send it to my supervisor while it’s still 4000 words over and already a week late

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

So it turns out 10 hours was enough time to cut ~5k words…. Only 36 hours to go?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Hey google, 8 hours will def be long enough to cut 23,000 words from a thesis draft, right?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I so desperately want to feel solidarity with the other postgrads working in the computer lab into the wee hours of the morning but then I walk by them and see ChatGPT open split screen on their computer and I want to start a fistfight

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

What if I’ve already done that times three? (I’m an overwriter to a pathological level, I think)

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Hey google, 2 days will def be long enough to cut an (estimated) 20,000 words from a thesis draft, right?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Journal article just accepted with minor revisions after revise and resubmit process ☺️☺️☺️ Job application submitted literally this morning with this article discussed and having to be labelled as “revisions submitted” 😠😠😠

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

As someone who has been desperate to see the big picture of my thesis this whole time, I’m finding the process of turning my 117300 word document of messy drafts with notes and red text and frankensteined together chapters into my final thesis draft, moving from top to bottom, incredibly satisfying

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Reposted by Ava Bucy

Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

In the most recent of # just hypermobile girlie things, my PhD work is being interrupted this afternoon bc my shoulder feels so loose and ouchy that I’m having to use my cardigan as a sling, which is in turn making my neck hurt 🙃

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I’ll report back on quality and ease of use 🫡

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I was originally thinking of just stickers but they’re like £30 for 50 stickers when you can get a roll of custom tape for £12……. I might have placed an order…….

A mockup image of packing tape with black and red text that says “if the poster is ai, I am not coming”

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Should I order a roll of tape with a custom “if the poster is AI I’m not coming” design that I can slap on terrible posters around town?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

No marking was done today… I am incredibly behind… better luck tomorrow?

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

I also wonder how/if the experience will change once I finish the PhD and am thus maybe still discursively “young” in broader contexts but am no longer a “student” who has prematurely taken on/been given responsibilities that once belonged to full professors

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Idk tldr contextual and inconsistent age norms/expectations/self presentations are weird

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Thinking about the doubled experience of being an ECR/PhD student, zillennial where 30s isn’t automatically “old”, and single (all thus still “young”) vs my role as a module lead, supervisor, etc to students (thus “old”), esp bc in normal (non failing HE) circumstances, I’d prob still only be a TA…

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

How am I meant to grade papers on a day like today?

A photo of Ava’s things sitting on some turf in the sun with her shadow cast over them: a green cardigan, a nearly empty iced coffee, the book Staging Femininities (with a black cover, pink text, and a woman in an elegant dress on stage pictured), and a tote bag with a black and pink alien laying on the floor amongst a pile of books labelled “smut” and the text “Silver Sprocket Rules Ok?” And the comic stores address under it (1018 Valencia at San Francisco, CA)

A photo of Ava vaguely visible in the reflection of a building, she’s laying down on turf in a white shirt and black shorts, the turf is visible in the foreground of the photo.

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Reposted by Ava Bucy

Dr. Shelby Judge @shelbyjudge.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I’m a 1st gen uni student. My mum, nan & godfather sat in Canterbury Cathedral on my graduation day, waiting to *hear my name called out* It’s such an important, human moment. This college tried to automate and dehumanise it & in doing so, ruined one of the most important days in their lives.

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

This one makes me extra sad for the graduates :(

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Reposted by Ava Bucy

Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 17/05/2026

I gave up after ten questions with three I simply couldn't answer The options were all limited to the status quo in slightly different shades Radical change of one kind or another is upon us whether we want it or not and this is indeed leaving us wallowing in the past

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Reposted by Ava Bucy

Neil @neilforreal.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

The oligarchs want us to blindly accept AI's societal destruction, with them as overlords doling out crumbs. Young people are having none of the bullshit they're selling.

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Reposted by Ava Bucy

Ben Litherland @benlitherland.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I have been thinking about this a lot recently re: cultural studies and "media literacy". So much of the discipline was built on the belief that reading *and* thinking were both radical and valuable. I never fully understood the urgency of Williams and Hoggart on these points, but I get it now.

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I would prefer to buy copies so I can hoard them and mark them up (and because digital copies without the real page numbers infuriate me) but I appreciate the library when I’m dipping into new topics and can go just borrow a whole pile and figure out the lay of the land before purchasing key ones

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

TWC revisions sent 🥰 FSNNA panel submitted 🥰 Lit Review rewrite restarted 😬 Marking…. is… due soon 🫣

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I also prefer the meatloaf version I gotta say, I can scream sing to it in a way that Celine just doesn’t allow

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Reposted by Ava Bucy

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

“‘The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,’ she said. The crowd booed.” This is what universities get for their willful ignorance of how students actually feel. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/s...

nytimes.com

Graduates Boo Commencement Speech About A.I.

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Every time someone says “it should be studied, honestly” about something in pop culture, a fan studies scholar loses their wings

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Podcasts about reading and discussing “am I the asshole” Reddit posts are such an interesting case study of morality negotiations on social media, like how celebs function for morality discourse, but also so different…… if someone’s written that paper hit me up

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Reader… I don’t know how I got 23 hours…. It was 12 hours late….. oh dear

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Fyi I’m in search of really nice gifts ideas for my supervisors for putting up with me for four years… except rn I’m off to bed

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Ava Bucy @fangirlresearch.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

So it took ~46 hours (minus 6 I was watching student presentations) but I did write/adapt around 16000 words… except, it was about 23 hours late and about 5k of those are incomplete and bad and also too long

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