Superheroes Research Plan

1. Introduction: The relevancy of folklore / pop culture studies to leadership studies.
   1. Can understanding a group’s (or individual’s) major folklore / pop culture help us gain valuable insight into political, social, and cultural norms and how they do or do not change over time?
      1. Particularly in regards to Implicit Leadership Theories and Social Identity Theory of Leadership.
2. Part 1: Identifying major folklore / pop culture phenomenons in the United States.
   1. The Superhero phenomenon.
      1. Background
         1. Early American Tall Tales
         2. Western Tropes
         3. Comic Book History
         4. Superheroes in Film
         5. Superheroes in Culture
3. Part 2: The Superhero franchise and its influence on, perpetuation of, or response to American Implicit Leadership Theories.
   1. Social science research on American ILTs
      1. ILTs and (American) social identity.
   2. Four problematic areas of ILTs to be considered in American Superhero films:
      1. American Exceptionalism
         1. Militarism
         2. Social Dominance Orientation Theory
      2. Gender Roles
         1. Feminist Theory
         2. Queer Theory
         3. Toxic Masculinity
      3. Racism
         1. Anglo-Saxon Centricity
         2. Stereotypes
      4. Romanticization of Leaders
         1. Individual vs. Shared Leadership
         2. Hero-Worship
4. Part 3: Analyzing Superhero films from the beginning until now.
   1. Overview of Superhero films, including box office ratings.
      1. Analysis of the top box-office films against the four problematic areas of ILTs, from earliest released to most recent.
5. Conclusion: What does all this mean for the superhero film industry?

Apart from actually sitting and watching superhero movies to become extremely comfortable and familiar with the industry and medium, I also have a number of sub-focuses that will require more background knowledge (i.e., I have to do at least minor research on the four overarching problematic areas of ILTs, as well as their sub-components). I want to sit down with Dr. Hoyt to gather recommendations for the best sources to use for leadership theory on gender roles; Dr. Allison for the best on hero-worship; and possibly other professors (not just in the leadership department) who could point in the right direction for the best overview sources of the various theories / concepts I will exploring in superhero films. That could include talking with a film studies professor to find overview sources on film theories (although I spent two years of high school studying film, which included an IB Extended Essay on a film topic).

Additional Sources:

1. Allison, Scott T., and David M. Messick. Conceptions of Leadership: Enduring Ideas and Emerging Insights. Edited by G. Goethals and R. Kramer, 2014 edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

2. Allison, Scott T., et al., editors. Handbook of Heroism and Heroic Leadership. 1 edition, Routledge, 2016.

3. Warshow, Robert.The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre, and Other Aspects of Popular Culture, Harvard University Press, 2002.

4. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/ (Box office website. Not sure if there’s a better source…)

5. That feminist theory book Dr. Bezio gave to me that’s sitting on my bookshelf 🙂

I will be using methods from the humanities for my topic because my research will primarily involve reading sources, watching films, and analyzing films in conversation with the sources I have read. At the same time, however, I will also be pulling sources from the social sciences that have to do with Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) and the Social Identity Theory of Leadership, which both involve psychology and actual social behavior. I will be generating my own theory about superheroes in relation to ILTs and social identity research, and although I will not be testing my theory via the social sciences, my theory would open the door for future experimentation.

The materials I will need for my research include academic books, peer-reviewed articles, superhero films, critic reviews, comic books, and websites (for gathering box office dataand superhero film/fanfare information). The superhero films–and possibly some comic books–will be my primary sources (i.e., the things to be analyzed and critiqued), and everything else will be my secondary sources (i.e., the things to be used for analyzing and critiquing).

In terms of topics, the specific kinds of secondary sources I will be drawing from include those on leadership studies, Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs), social identity theory (of leadership), comic book history, American exceptionalism, American history, feminist theory, critical race theory, toxic masculinity and violence, superhero history, film psychology, superhero films, heroism, and superheroes as cultural icons. For my primary sources, the superhero films themselves, I will focus on the historically and presently most popular/watched, such as (though this is subject to change) Black Panther (2018), Wonder Woman (2017), Deadpool (2016), The Avengers (2012), The Dark Knight (2008), and Superman (1978).

I have been meeting with Dr. Bezio, who is the my primary faculty advisor for my senior thesis. Early on in the semester we discussed what sources I should be reading (at least to start), but because my area of research is not strictly in one discipline, there are multiple important sources for me to read to get a good grasp on my topic. If I were to break it down into groups, I will be reading sources on comic books, on superheroes, on implicit leadership theories, on social identity and leadership, and on the film industry. I am also thinking about looking at critic reviews on the superheroes movies I end up analyzing for my project (once I get to that point).

Other faculty I have talked to here and there have mentioned articles or books to consider for my research as well, which I have taken note of, and more than once Dr. Allison’s name has surfaced. In the near future I hope to meet with him because of his own extensive research in heroism and leadership.

Overall, I feel pretty comfortable at this point with the direction of my thesis. It is now a matter of reading the sources I have gathered and actually doing the research. One thing that did come up in my last meeting with Dr. Bezio was whether I will be focusing on either DC Comic or Marvel movies, or both, and I think I am leaning toward focusing on whatever superhero movies have the highest box office ratings, regardless of producer. My rational is that to understand the extent of the cultural and social affect of these movies on Americans (or vice versa), I should pay special attention to the most popular and most watched movies. My remaining question to consider, however, is whether I want to include a range across time or focus solely on the ones that caused the most stir, regardless of release year?

These are the three major research questions I have narrowed my project to (though will need to be refined), which build off each other:

1. Can understanding a group’s (or individual’s) major folklore / pop culture, such as superheroes in the United States, help us gain valuable insight into political, social, and cultural changes in that group (or individual), particularly changes in regard to leadership perceptions?
2. How has the superhero franchise / phenomenon been affecting and being shaped by cultural Implicit Leadership Theories in the United States, if it has at all?
3. How has recent superhero films such as Wonder Woman (2017) and Black Panther (2018) engaged with, perpetuated, or rejected ILTs about gender roles, race, romanticization of leadership, American exceptionalism, and individual vs. shared leadership?

The book I am reading now, Comic Books and American Cultural History: An Anthology, is pure gold! This is exactly the kind of secondary resource I needed to jump start my research. Every chapter is from various professors, educators, and historians about using comic books as historical artifacts to provide “insight into political, social, and cultural changes in the United States” (12), among other things. The introduction also indicates that the book will provide a good factual overview of the comic book (and even the graphic novel) world.

My handwritten notes on the introduction and first chapter of Matthew Pustz’s anthology are attached. I have really enjoyed the work so far and foresee myself reading through it rather quickly!

The book I am starting with for my research on heroes is On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History ( 2013) by Thomas Carlyle with essays by a number of contributors. I chose this work to start because the title repeatedly popped up on preliminary theoretical resource searches. After reading the introduction, I know why: It argues and explores what has been termed the “Great Man” theory (i.e., history is defined by great men).

Although I think it could still be beneficial to read thiswork for my research, I don’t think it’s best to right now. The introduction provided a good overview of what Carlyle’s lectures contain, and at this point that’s all I really need from the book. That said, my next step will probably be to read Comic Books and American Cultural History: An Anthology. I need to wade around in comic book history and cultural before progressing into the modern-day superhero franchise (while engaging with more theoretical texts along the way).

As for my notes, I have uploaded a photo of them because I take notes best the old-fashioned way: by hand. I find that I retain what I read way better when I do so, and it keeps all of my notes (apart from supplement materials–which I keep, in addition to my notebook, in a research binder) together.

You’ll notice that I use different colored ink; I use blue ink for direct quotations and black ink for general notes, that way when I am going back through my notes I can pull quotes easily. You might also notice that my pages are numbered; my high school chemistry teacher taught us to treat notebooks much like books with table of contents and page numbers, and this method has helped keep my pages-upon-pages of notes organized and navigable. I also have the habit of writing key words in the left-hand margins of my notes, and major concepts in the upper margins. If a note or quote is particularly important, I star it. Section headings or chapters I put in brackets, and I always put the title and year of what I am reading along with author(s) on top of the first line of every corresponding page, often with (continued) in parenthesis if the notes area continuation of the same work.

My sources are going to be a big mix of articles, books, videos, and of course, movies! Here are 24 potential sources, but I do need to still find some solid resources (probably articles) on American Exceptionalism and Individualism-Collectivism in Leadership:

The set of keywords I used to find these sources were “superheroes,” “hero-worship,” “comic books,” and “female leadership”:

Bibliography (MLA)

Things to research:

• Female Implicit Leadership Theories
• Racial Implicit Leadership Theories
• Feminism and Violence
  • Women Warrior Trope?
• Comic Book History
• Marvel and D.C. Comics History
• Hero-worship
• Wonder Women History
• Black Panther History
• Superheroes in relation to American History
• Romantization of Leadership
• Psychology of Film

Possible Research Sources

• The Journal of Leadership Studies
• All the Books!
• Resource databases through Boatwright
• The films/comics themselves