The 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...
Read MoreFame and the Cities
New York City is like a star. It is either hyped or criticized. My experience of NYC was nothing like I thought. It wasn’t the mediated version of Sex and the City which, by the way, I adore. I was fortunate to be in the Upper West Side in between Central Park and Riverside Park that was eclectic, charming, calm, and vibrant at the same time. And it was there that the exciting journey of my debut book Fame in Hollywood North started. After a pre-launch reading of the book at America’s first conference on celebrity culture, it is now being presented at exclusive media events in...
Read MoreKim or Caitlyn? Breaking Boundaries in Fame
A question that often comes to our mind: why is fame an important area to reflect on? For me, fame has had a pervasive presence in how fans engage in pleasures and identification, and in how they develop para-social relations with celebrities. The relationship is both material and symbolic. Fan practices such as circulation and re-mixing of celebrity images and texts have physical components. The practices also reflect and reinforce imaginary relations that hold affective and cultural values While the Kardarshians offer pleasures of hybrid identities, they also silence articulations of and...
Read MoreConference Corners
I have just over 7 days left for the inaugural Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) conference in Toronto – it will be an honour and pleasure to finally meet all delegates in person. Part of me is in New York as I am also organizing our next media conference there and being interviewed for Shannon Skinner’s new radio show this week. I am grateful for the opportunities to speak and looking forward to sharing views on celebrities at the conferences and in media. Historically, stardom had its origins in Hollywood where film played a role in creating the actor as a star....
Read MoreBeyond the Professoriate / Bridging Gaps – May 2015 Conferences
Dear Readers, Hope the last week of April is going well for all! May is coming with two empowering conferences that are highly recommended for career development: • Beyond the Professoriate by Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) panelist Jennifer Polk (www.fromphdtolife.com). Online conference for PhDs 2 and 9 May, 2015 Speakers include 25 PhDs from a variety of fields including communication, marketing, public relations, social media, engineering, ethnomusicology, genetics, German and more! Explore career options, ask questions of working professionals, learn skills and connect...
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