Call for Papers
1st Global Conference
Thursday 15th March – Saturday 17th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
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 and the people that consume them. Its analysis permeates all disciplines of study, making celebrity a multifaceted concept. Though more obvious in the late 20th century, academics have continually 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; all manner of consumer products, not least the medical world, has been engaging celebrities to promote a cornucopia of products as well as health-awareness programmes or as spokes-persons for the UN, UNICEF, ambassadors, charities and beyond.; more recently, economists have pointed to the entertainment sector to find areas which have not been drastically touched by recession.
This call for papers addresses a serious, interdisciplinary and multicultural analysis of the phenomenon of celebrity. Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:
- Definitions of celebrity-hood, stardom, charisma, uniqueness/singularity across cultures
- The history of celebrity: the idols in the past and now
- From zero to hero
- The modern celebrity culture
- Ideological conditions of celebrity culture
- Celebrities as commodities
- Representation of celebrities; ‘celebrification’ processes; the making of the ‘star’
- Celebrity and identity formation; empowerment or objectification; self-fashioning (public vs private self)
- Celebrity culture and the audience (i.e. fandom; celebrity worship; stalking; role models; franchising)
- Good and bad PR
- Celebrities as cultural fabrications
- Celebrity and power; political function of celebrity status
- Politics and celebrities; celebrities in politics
- Mass media and the formation of celebrity culture
- Celebrity in the media: news, shows, tabloids
- Celebrity and the law, accountability, morality, crime, transgressions
- Celebrity status and gender
- Celebrity as educators; their positive impact; celebrities and humanitarian actions; awareness-raising
- Notorious celebrity/fame: The anti-heroes
- Celebrities and their personnel
- Child celebrities: Too young for fame?
- Celebrity status as a burden; The weight of stardom
- Forgotten celebrities: What happens when fame disappears? Celebrities and ageing
- Unwanted fame
- Intercultural perspective on celebrity: i.e. Bollywood vs Hollywood
- (Post)colonialism and celebrity
- (Auto)biographies of/by stars and idols: self-representation, truth/fiction
- Celebrity confessional literature; Self-help books by celebrities
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 27th January 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Celebrity Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Katarzyna Bronk
Independent Scholar,
Poznan,
Poland
E-mail: Katarzyna Bronk
Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road,
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
Email: Rob Fisher
The conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
Style Sheets
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