Three-D Issue 21: Women’s Media Studies Network events
Heather Nunn
Roehampton University
The WMSN was pleased to sponsor two panels last summer:
- Women, Media and Activism roundtable conducted at Console-ing Passions in June 2013. Our thanks go to panelists Lisa Howell, Karen Boyle, Katie Hind, Ganiyat Adenle, Angela Martin and to Kaitlynn Mendes as convenor.
- Women’s Cinema in Greece, in the Balkans, in Europe roundtable which took place at the Contemporary Greek Film Cultures conference in July 2013. Thanks to Tonia Kazakopoulou for convening this event.
MeCCSA 2014 at BU
The Annual MeCCSA conference in January 2014 (Bournemouth University) will include a WMSN Panel entitled Essex: Formations of Gender, Class and Culture
Anita Biressi, Andrew Branch, Faye Woods and Heather Nunn critically engage with the symbolic and lived significance of Essex, Essex Man and Essex Girl as emblems of (white) working-class politics, culture and consumption. Here we consider the ways in which popular fascination and anxiety about shifting patterns of class allegiance and working-class social mobility became attached to people from Essex from the 1980s to the current day. We also point to the ways in which this politics of class and class-based fascination is cross-hatched with that of gender and sexuality and how this is played out in popular and lived culture.
Sex and the City Ten Years On: Landmark Television and its Legacy
Forthcoming conference at the University of Roehampton April 4 2014 – co-sponsored by the WMSN and the Centre for Research in Film and Audiovisual Cultures, Roehampton. Organised by Deborah Jermyn (d.jermyn@roehampton.ac.uk)
2014 will mark ten years since the final episode of Sex and the City (HBO 1998-2004) was broadcast. During the programme’s six seasons, and throughout the decade following its finale, SATC has continued to be recognised as one of the most contentious and cherished series in recent television history, having tapped into a zeitgeist consumed by postfeminism to become a cultural touchstone. In a July 2013 New Yorker article, Emily Nussbaum lamented the manner in which the show has been ‘downgraded to a “guilty pleasure’’’ by some, while male-centred series are readily revered. Nussbaum reminded readers that this was ‘sharp, iconoclastic television. High-feminine instead of fetishistically masculine, glittery rather than gritty and daring in its conception of character.’ Embraced and celebrated but also vilified by audiences, critics and the media, this conference will explore the ways in which the impact of SATC continues to be felt across popular culture.
The conference Twitter account will be @SATC10th with a Facebook group at ‘SATC 10 Years On Conf’.
Mailing list update: the WMSN currently has 353 subscribers. If you wish to join the list go to https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk or contact A. Biressi at a.biressi@roehampton.ac.uk
Are you considering hosting an event with the WMSN? Please contact Heather Nunn at h.nunn@roehampton.ac.uk