Celebrity Studies Book Release & Keynotes
We are excited to announce the release of Film Stardom and the Ancient Past Idols, Artefacts and Epics by Michael Williams. Published by Palgrave MacMillan, the book offers the first major study of the use of the ancient past in the construction of Hollywood stardom after the silent era. This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of how the ancient past has shaped screen stardom in Hollywood since the silent era. It engages with debates on historical reception, gender and sexuality, nostalgia, authenticity and the uses of the past. Michael Williams gives fresh insights into...
Read MoreTurning Tears into Words
Hope October is going well. I am about to draft the 54th edition of Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) while I continue being an executor for my father’s estate. I celebrated his 75th birthday on the last day of our CMCS conference in New York – haven’t seen him for over 35 weeks. I will never forget the sense of deep loss I had while being cheered for the immense success of our research centre. I was moved to tears. Sometimes, we lose to succeed. I had nothing to lose – I was in deep loss already. I lost everything I could but had to turn moments of that...
Read MoreIn VICE + FREE Op-Ed Writing Webinar – September 23!
Pleased to share that my latest views are covered in VICE magazine: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7xxj7e/why-your-grief-over-a-celebritys-death-is-real. Thanks to journalist Luke Ottenhoff & Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) member Jacque Lynn Foltyn for joining me on VICE. Read and share your views – we want to hear from you! Also, special thanks to Nafsika Antypas for sharing my article “Sexism and Speciesism in Not-So-Female Friendly Hollywood” with worldwide readers and viewers:...
Read MoreThe Good & The Bad
In one of Facebook posts, I mentioned the idea of writing my memoir. Will that book talk about all the good ideas that were expected of me in the past? I am a bad Canadian. I neither support political images of the Great White North nor do I buy hockey tickets. My book Fame in Hollywood North will tell us why. I am also a bad Bengali. I neither buy fish nor do I have to marry. Sometimes we conflate our belonging to a geographical place, a linguistic community or professional setting with what we are expected to identify. Often these expectations are associated with a sense of collective...
Read MoreThe Feminist and the Friend
Dear Readers, Last Sunday, host of Extraordinary Women TV Shannon Skinner and I had the honour to conduct a 3-hour media skills training workshop for the Feminist Art Conference (FAC) delegates at Ontario College of Arts and Design (OCAD) University. I also had the privilege to offer a pre-launch display of Fame in Hollywood North – the first ever history and theory of fame in Canadian popular culture. A special thanks to WaterHill Publishing, Ilene Sova at FAC, Carmen Wong, and Nalini Mohabir for being a part of this journey. The day of my Feminist Art Conference (FAC) media workshop...
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