Celebrity: Exploring Critical Issues

Welcome to the Celebrity interdisciplinary research and publications project. The dream to be famous is as old as humanity itself. Celebrities are born every day and they often disappear after their Warholian fifteen minutes. Celebrity culture has long ceased to be of interest only to tabloids and merchandisers. Its analysis permeates all disciplines of study, making celebrity a multifaceted concept. Beginning in the late 20^th century various academics have called for a broader programme of celebrity studies; anthropologists have been identifying connections between celebrity status and religion (shamanism; idolatry; reliquaries); psychologists have been discussing the consequences of ‘celebrity worship’ and warning about the fate of those who rose to questionable fame within a fortnight. With the seemingly insatiable desire for the lifestyle, style-tips and emulation of celebrity sociologists have been describing new ways of representing, producing and, most importantly, consuming celebrity; the medical world has been engaging celebrities to promote health-awareness programmes or as spokes-persons for particular drugs; and, more recently, economists have pointed to the entertainment sector to find areas which have not been drastically touched by recession.

The  Celebrity project will explore, assess, and map a number of key core themes:

~ Definitions of celebrity-hood, stardom, charisma, uniqueness/singularity across cultures
~ The history of celebrity: the idols in the past and now
~ The modern celebrity culture
~ Ideological conditions of celebrity culture
~ Representation of celebrities; ‘celebrification’ processes; the making of the ‘star’
~ Celebrity and identity formation
~ Celebrity culture and the audience
~ Politics and celebrities; celebrities in politics
~ Mass media and the formation of celebrity culture
~ Celebrity and the law, accountability, morality, crime, transgressions
~ Celebrity status and gender
~ Celebrity as educators
~ Celebrity as a burden
~ Intercultural perspectives on celebrity
~ (Auto)biographies of/by stars and idols: self-representation, truth/fiction; celebrity confessional literature

Related themes will also be identified for development and exploration. Out of our deliberations it is anticipated that a series of related cross context research projects will develop.