I am very pleased to announce that we are holding our first Australian CMCS Conference in Perth, WA!
I have organised and Chaired CMCS conferences in New York and Barcelona, so it is exciting to bring it home! I would like to thank the Perth Convention Bureau and Tourism WA for their support.
Click below to read the full Call for Papers:
I look forward to seeing you there!
My new book, Becoming Brands: Celebrity, Activism and Politics, is now available for purchase here.
I would like to thank my co-editor Dr. Celia Lam and P. David Marshall for writing the foreword. I would also like to thank all the authors for contributing their chapters and Waterhill for publishing. This book was inspired by the presentations at the CMCS conference in Barcelona in 2016. The key theme was exploring celebrity activism and how activists become celebrities.
My own chapter in the book examines how Paul Newman established a posthumous brand that helps charities around the world.
I hope you enjoy reading it.
I was interviewed by Albertine Bourget for the Swiss Women’s Weekly, Femina. We discussed celebrities, feminism, media representation, having control through social media and much more. Check out the article here (you may need to use Google Translate)…
CMCS has a new conference coming up. Where better to discuss film and media than Hollywood? Check out the CFP…
CALL FOR PAPERS
Bridging Gaps: Where is the film scholar in Hollywood filmmaking?
Performance Café, University of South California
Los Angeles, USA
March 18-19, 2017
There have been significant debates on gaps between filmmakers and film scholars. Film scholars have been critical of dominant representations that tend to overlook classist, sexist, speciesist and ethnocentric trends in the production of films and star-studded images in Hollywood. Yet, scholarly views in academic writing are not adequately addressed in film production and in journalism. Scholars can address the issues through journalism and moving image practices in which filmmakers are trained. CMCS sponsored Celebrity Chat is an example of this trend. Can a new form of film ‘critic’ be situated in journalistic and scholarly discussions and screenings? Can the critiques become a new form of ‘activism’ that is different yet supports ideals of celebrity activism in Hollywood and beyond?
The Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) Bridging Gaps conference, in association with sponsors Centre for Ecological, Social, and Informatics Cognitive Research (ESI.CORE) and WaterHill Publishing, invites papers and audiovisual material that explore the relationship among four key themes related to Hollywood – theory, production, criticism, and activism. We invite academics, filmmakers, journalists, publicists, and guests to present and connect cutting-edge research areas from a range of interdisciplinary fields and address social justice issues in moving image practices.
We also invite people to send in videos for the Celebrity Chat Award. The best video/documentary will be selected based on its ability to draw attention to a significant matter, be relevant to the conference theme and inspire change. Extended versions of selected papers will be invited for publication.
Registration includes: Your printed conference package, coffee / tea breaks, access to evening receptions, evening drinks, professional development workshop, and consideration for the CMCS $100 best paper and $100 screen awards.
Submission guidelines:
Celebrity Chat Video Submissions:
Topics include but are not limited to:
Conference Chairs: Dr Samita Nandy
Committee Members: Dr Jackie Raphael, Dr Nicole Bojko and Kiera Obbard
Conference URL: www.cmc-centre.com/losangeles
We are delighted by the many wonderful abstracts we have received, and thank all prospective authors for their proposals.
To complete the various themes of the book we are now specifically requesting abstracts exploring the following themes:
In our recent publication, “Marvel media convergence: Cult following and buddy banter”, Dr. Celia Lam and I explore themes such as online discussions, fandom, bromance, transmedia storytelling and buddy banter. The latter is a term we coined, which explores the relationship between co-stars of any gender. Developing the concept of bromances being used for promotional purposes, we decided to examine the different connections within a group dynamic. You can read all about it here –
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Article,id=22181/
This is the video that inspired this particular case study:
I am proud to announce that we have launched Season 2 of Celebrity Chat. The first video won the top prize at the Bridging Gaps conference in Barcelona this year.
In this video, Dr. Susan Hopkins and Dr. Jenny Ostini from University of Southern Queensland discuss the celebrity campaign surrounding the female students who were kidnapped in North-Eastern Nigeria by Boko Haram Islamist militants.
Themes of feminism, fame and politics arise from this fascinating conversation. Check it out..
