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University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol
Thursday 12th and Friday 13th July 2007
> Click here to view the detailed programme overview (online)
> Click here to download the detailed programme overview (pdf)
Conference Programme - Abstracts
Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2
Chair: Dr Josie Dolan
Girls rock like guys don't': musical realities from the Glasgow scene
Carrie Maclennan, Glasgow Caledonian University
music, gender, identity
Focussing on the differing realities of three female, Glasgow based musicians, the paper directs attention toward the manner in which these particular performers have constructed their own musical identities whilst also overcoming barriers which potentially threaten their status in the local musical environment.
Drawing upon data gathered from in-depth interviews, performance observations, textual analysis and discourse analysis, the paper exposes and analyses the often disparate discourses of femininity, musicianship and identity which emerge in relation to these particular artists.
Addressing issues of representation in the press, audience response, male dominance in the studio environment, the paper ultimately engages with tricky concepts of authenticity, musicianship and feminism and asks some questions about the role of the music journalist in creating and maintaining the dominant discourse of ‘music scene’.
Imagining ‘Britishness’: The Cinema of Pawel Pawlikowski
Joanna Rydzewska, Swansea University
British identity, English identity, European identity, gender, Pawwel Pawlikowski
Pawel Pawlikowski is a Polish-born ‘British’ director whose two recent films have gained considerable acclaim. Last Resort (2000) won BAFTA’s the Carl Foreman Award for the most promising talent and My Summer of Love (2004) consolidated Pawlikowski’s position by winning the Best British Film award at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The two films in a rather different fashion ‘imagine’ a ‘British’ identity at a time when the notion is breaking-up both as a result of the devolution processes in the UK itself and the larger processes of redefining European identity as a result of moving ‘into a new system beyond the sovereign state’(Georg Sorensen). While Last Resort probes into a ‘British’ identity through a story of a Russian mail order bride, which clearly metaphorizes the West/East relationship of power and privilege and should be more appropriately understood as examining the notion of European identity in a redefined social, economic and political situation, My Summer of Love, a beautiful and poetic story of love and conflict between two teenage girls, working-class Mona and upper-class
Tasmin, imagines a ‘British’ identity by actually resorting to an old, and for a long time hegemonic, definition of English identity, which, as Steve Blandford explains, has usually been presented ‘in terms of class and regional conflict’.
Encounters in diasporic space: syncretisation and identity redefinition in the Ghnaian diaspora of London
Richard Kpabi, University of Westminster
diaspora, identity, syncretism, culture, media
The 21st century world is one of increasing global integration as well as transnational media conglomeration. This study is set within the context of the dynamic processes involving the contemporary flows of peoples, images and ideas across the world.
It explores issues involving national identification and cultural syncretisation in a multinational / multicultural environment.
The focus is on a typical postcolonial, modern diaspora constituted by Ghanaian Londoners as it is redefined and constructed in a new context. It is a study of diaspora culture at its intersection with mediated cultures. It investigates the local appropriation of transnational media products, employing ethnographic methods to explore cultural processes and interactions, in an attempt to trace evidence of syncretism deriving from mediated and encountered cultural influences.
A two-fold context of cultural juxtaposition is considered: the immediate physical environment of London with its diverse cultural representations, and the context of mediated cultures experienced through television. The study investigates the various roles of television, including, its use as a resource to reflect, challenge, revise, maintain, remake, or adapt cultural traditions within the diaspora. The intersection of screen cultures and cross-cultural diasporic experiences of this community, provides useful perspectives and perceptions of cultures in close proximity and interaction, and generates comparative and contrastive reflections across the generational divide.
Inter-generational comparisons are also drawn in matters relating to tensions in assertions of ethnic/ diasporic and national identities.
Panel 1: Imperialism and Globalisation
Panel 2: Online Citizens and Democracy
Panel 3: Television Audiences
Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1
Panel 5: Reporting the Conflict
Panel 6: Journalism and Social Responsibility
Panel 7: Sexual Representations in Cinema
Panel 8: Popular Culture
Panel 9: Still Image
Panel 10: Branding, Advertising and Corporate Cultures
Panel 11: Film and Theatre
Panel 12: Alternative Film
Panel 13: Feminism, Gender and Identity
Panel 14: Fan Culture and Online Audiences
Panel 15: Public Service Broadcasting and Radio
Panel 16: Design for Screen
Panel 17: Uses of Music and Sound in Film
Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2
Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest
Note: Please be aware that the programme might be subject to changes. Please refer back to this page for a final programme overview nearer the conference. The final programme will also be communicated to delegates via email.
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