'Stan' culture can be problematic, UB professor says

USA Today quoted David Schmid, associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, for a story on “stans,” ultra-fans who are devoted to celebrities in ways that can lead to “addictive tendencies” and “stalking behavior,” according to research. "If the object of adoration does the wrong thing, that iteration can very quickly shift to hostility,” says Schmid. "We talk a lot about the power that the ‘stans’ have. But we're not talking enough about the power that the celebrities have over those ‘stans’, and I think that needs to be more front-and-center going forward."