Conference Program (PDF, 720 KB)
With another presidential election year upon us, we take advantage of an opportune time to consider the complex ways in which the public exchange of information delineates, if not defines, social power. As citizens of the Information Age, we live in a world that has been and will continue to be refashioned by circulation, via new and ever-developing technologies, of images and information. Much excellent work has been done by feminist thinkers to expose the commercial underpinnings of messages about the lives of women, people of color, and LGBTQ people that circulate through popular media, but the conversation must move beyond the isolated, often-fetishized individual body to address how these representations affect the body politic.
With panels focusing on feminist coverage of the coming presidential election, the ways popular media address girls and young women, the challenge of representing queer life in mainstream culture, as well as the potential pathways toward social change offered by new and alternative technologies, this year’s Scholar and Feminist Conference will examine not only the ways in which the media navigates issues of sex, gender, and sexuality, but also the ways in which the circulation of those ideas translates into power ( or the lack of it) in various arenas: from the political and commercial to the personal and social. By considering the work and experience of some of today’s most influential media makers and critics, we hope to understand better the ways in which the media might be used to overturn dominant, oppressive social modes, to ensure that women and other traditionally disempowered people are given voice in their full richness and complexity, and to harness progressive energies toward real and lasting social change.
Morning Panels
Grrrl!: How the Media Markets Power to Girls
A surge in female action heroes, the increased visibility of female athletes in the media, and a prominent magazine campaign to foster girls’ political ambition and leadership skills have given new life to the concept of “girl power.” At the same time, many real girls-and grown-up “grrrls” too-continue to experience a relative dearth of power in the larger world, both personally and politically. Join the editors of CosmoGIRL! and BUST magazines, girls’ advocates, and scholars as we examine how various mainstream media market to girls. We’ll look closely at current conversations about girls, media, and power and explore the role the media plays in fashioning new models of “girl power” that are often part pop culture, part social cause.
Deborah Aubert, Associate Director of National Programming, Girls Incorporated
Sherrie Inness, Professor of English, Miami University
Margaret Honey, Director, Center for Children and Technology
Susan Schultz, Editor, CosmoGIRL! Magazine
Debbie Stoller, Editor, BUST Magazine
Moderated by Deborah Siegel, Editor, The Scholar & Feminist Online
Queer Eye on the Media: The Politics of Visibility
From Will & Grace to the wildly popular Queer Eye…, television alone has played a large and undeniable role in transforming American culture in a more gay-positive direction. Taking this phenomenon as our point of departure, we will explore the political consequences of the mainstream’s embrace of its gay citizenry, or, to be more precise, certain members of that citizenry. We’ll examine the complex ways by which representations of gay life-from the small screen to the big screen to the stage-contribute to positioning LGBTQ people on the inside or outside of social power structures.
Leigh Fondakowski, Playwright, The Laramie Project
Anna McCarthy, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema Studies, NYU
Richard Fung, Filmmaker, Dirty Laundry, Sea in the Blood
Amy Villarejo, Associate Professor, Department of Theater, Film, and Dance, Cornell University
Christine Vachon, Producer, Boys Don’t Cry, Kids
Moderated by David Eng, Professor of English, Rutgers University
Afternoon Panels
Governance by the Media: Feminists and the Coming Election
Renowned media-markers and distinguished scholars come together to examine the considerable impact of current media trends-from the rise of Internet fundraising to the Foxification of television news-on the US presidential election. We’ll discuss the challenges of fomenting serious, thoughtful debate in an age of sound bites, and strategize ways in which ordinary citizens can continue to make a difference in the face of corporate conglomeration.
Mary Douglas Vavrus, Communication Studies Department, University of Minnesota
Maria Hinojosa, CNN Correspondent
Kelly Moore, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn College
Katha Pollitt, Political Columnist for The Nation
Moderated by Lorraine Minnite, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Barnard College
The Future in Pixels: Feminist Art & New Media
From digital photography and archiving to ever-expanding Internet developments, we are all familiar with the ways in which the tools of technology are often exploited for business and commercial purposes. But a growing number of artists and activists are now appropriating such media as a mean of both critiquing that commercial culture and creating bold, new, alternative (if not revolutionary) public spaces.
Natalie Jeremijenko, Design engineer and technoartist
Elisabeth Subrin, Video artist and Visiting Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University
Wynne Greenwood, Video artist
Prema Murthy, Digital artist
Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu, Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow, Vassar College, and co-editor of Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life
Moderated by Rachel Greene, Director, Rhizome
Keynote Address
Off Our Shoulders: How Hollywood Boulevard, Madison Avenue, & K Street Conspire to Limit Women’s Potential
Janeane Garofalo, actor and activist
Having appeared as a political commentator on such shows as Crossfire, Inside Politics, MSNBC and CNN, Janeane Garofalo has established herself as a passionate voice for diplomacy and peace. She began her career as a regular on Saturday Night Live!, The Larry Sanders Show, and the Emmy Award-winning Ben Stiller Show, and has appeared in a number of films, including Steal This Movie, The Laramie Project, Dogma, and Reality Bites.
