Feminism and girl cultures will be the topics under discussion at two free public lectures hosted by The University of Queensland’s Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies (CCCS) on Monday, October 7 and Tuesday, October 8.
In the first lecture entitled Feminism and the Media – still too much for blokes? three prominent media researchers, including Associate Professor Catharine Lumby, will explore feminism in the new millennium and its centrality in media stories and cultural debates.
She will be joined by PhD candidate and online publisher of the Game Culture webpage Sue Morris as well as Dr Jane Roscoe Head of Screen Studies at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney.
Dr Lumby will also host the second lecture entitled It Feels Real: Teenage Girls Talk About Big Brother where she will present some of the findings of a study carried out by herself and Associate Professor Elspeth Probyn from the University of Sydney.
The study examines the responses of teenage girls to reality television, using Big Brother and the star of its first series Sara-Marie Fedele as a case study.
Both lectures will take place at the University’s Social Sciences and Humanities Library Conference Room at the St Lucia campus. Feminism and the Media will begin at 5.30pm followed the next day by It Feels Real, which will commence at 2pm.
Dr Lumby is the Director of the Media and Communications Program at the University of Sydney.
She is a widely published print journalist and has also worked as a news reporter for ABC television. She currently writes a fortnightly column for The Bulletin magazine.
During Feminism and the Media Dr Lumby will discuss how many concepts identified as feminist are now arguably outmoded and continue to reflect rigid stereotypes about gender and identity.
Ms Morris will discuss her experience of working at the interface of the gaming culture, in terms of the hostility towards female players and ways in which female gamers have made a virtue of their rarity, whilst Dr Roscoe will talk about working with industry partners and doing production research in the male dominated world of film and television.
The second lecture It Feels Real will analyse, Big Brother’s Sara-Marie as a figure who allows young women the opportunity to discuss and to some extent return the media’s gaze. Dr Lumby’s arguments will draw on emerging and extensive focus group data gathered as part of a large Australian Research Council Discovery grant.
These lectures form part of the CCCS 2002 seminar program, which aims to promote the research culture of the arts and humanities in addition to showcasing the diversity of research currently being undertaken within the fields of critical and cultural studies.
Media: for further information, contact Ms Andrea Mitchell on (telephone 07 3365 7182, email: a.mitchell@uq.edu.au); Associate Professor Catherine Lumby on (telephone 61 2 9351 3896, email: catharine.lumby@mediastudies.usyd.edu.au); Dr Jane Roscoe on (telephone 0438 56098); Ms Sue Morris on (telephone 0418 763 833) or UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 3367 or email: communications@uq.edu.au).
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