DESECRATING CELEBRITY 4TH CELEBRITY STUDIES JOURNAL CONFERENCE JUNE 26-28 2018, 9 AM - 7 PM FACOLTÀ DI LETTERE E FILOSOFIA BOOK OF ABSTRACTS Thanks to 1 2 3 PANELS LIST CELEBRITY AND RELIGION, CELEBRITY AS RELIGIOUS Isabella Pezzini, Bianca Terracciano, Sapienza Università di Roma The Pope-celebrity and the role of cinema Simona Romani, Paolo Peverini, LUISS Guido Carli Pope Francis: the representation of a celebrity between actions and narratives Anna Maria Lorusso, Università di Bologna Popularity and populism THE PURSUIT OF FAME AT ALL COSTS: IDENTITY WORK AMONG YOUNG CELEBRITIES AND CONSUMERS Annebeth Bels, Hilde Van den Bulck, University of Antwerp Social Media Celebrities as Salient Resource for Preteens’ Identity Work Pilar Lacasa, Julián de la Fuente-Prieto, Sara Cortés, University of Alcalá Adolescents as cultural activists: Remixing celebrities in fandom communities Stephanie Patrick, University of Ottawa. Desecrating Disney: The 2007 Celebrity Photo Hacks and Crisis in American Hegemonic Femininity CELEBRITIES IN BRAZILIAN FAVELAS: CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP THROUGH FAME Thiago Soares, UFPE Performance and cultural citizenship: Methodological scripts for favela celebrities in Brazil Fabiana Moraes, UFPE Poverty and celebrification in everyday life: negotiation and confrontation of the new deprived and famous on Instagram Camila Monteiro, University of Huddersfield The whitening proccess to mainstream: Funk celebrities and the white approach to reach larger audiences CHALLENGING AUTHENTICITY IN CELEBRITY ACTIVISM: STRATEGIES OF POLITICAL AND CULTURAL AUTHORITY Lene Bull Christiansen, Roskilde University, Denmark. The celebrity branded activist campaign: a case study of the Danish pop-singer Medina’s Mevation* project Katrine Meldgaard, University of Southern Denmark “Bombing the idea of the state as a health authority to pieces”: celebrity and antivaccination 4 advocacy Helle Kannik Haastrup, University of Copenhagen The Celebrity as Activist and Cultural Critic: Emma Watson’s Feminist Book Club & The Handmaids Tale DAVID BOWIE: CELEBRITY DESECRATION, FLUIDITY AND CRITIQUE Toija Cinque, Deakin University/SAE Institute David Bowie: Desecration and Desire in the Social Mediasphere Ian Dixon, Deakin University Fame, Rotting on the Slimy Thoroughfare: David Bowie’s Desecrating Celebritization between ‘Diamond Dogs’ and ‘Blackstar’. Lisa Perrott, University of Waikato David Bowie, Hauntology and Uncanny Celebrity. DESECRATING ITALIAN CELEBRITIES. SCANDALS, FAME MIGRATIONS AND MEDIA EFFECTS Silvia Vacirca, Sapienza Università di Roma “Il caso Tortora”: assuming the celebrity's guilt Antonella Mascio, Università di Bologna 1992/1993. The story of the degradation of political celebrity through the fiction framework. Rachel Haworth, University of Hull Legacies of Scandal in the Celebritization Process: The Case of Mina, Italian Popular Music Diva CELEBRITIES IN THE HIGHEST SPHERES: DEGRADATION, CELEBRIFICATION, AND DESACRALIZATION OF SAINTS, POPES, AND ANGELS. Paola Bonifazio, University of Texas ‘Maria Goretti Superstar: Female Sainthood, Celebrity, and Fandom’ Giancarlo Lombardi, College of Staten Island, CUNY Graduate Center ‘Holy Celebrity: The Young Pope’ Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Dickinson College, Ellen Nerenberg, Wesleyan Universit ‘The Winx Club: Angelic Celebrities, Pastoral Edutainment.’ HISTORICAL FIGURES BETWEEN ACCREDITATION AND DEGRADATION Sara Pesce, Università di Bologna Luxury Pays. Marie Antoinette Queen of Fashion Fabio Cleto, Università di Bergamo Notorious: Oscar Wilde, the queer “it” and the grammar of celebrity 5 Lucio Spaziante, Università di Bologna Bob Dylan as an anti-celebrity Nobel Prize laureate FAME AND CELEBRITY STUDIES’ HISTORICAL TURN - 1: THE INVESTIGATION OF REPUTATION, RENOWN, RUMOUR AND SCANDAL (ANTIQUITY, MEDIEVAL, AND RENAISSANCE PERIODS) P David Marshall, Deakin University Panel Introduction Charles Hedrick, UC Santa Cruz Antiquity and its organization of fame/celebrity: the tension of reputation and scandal Gianni Guastella, Università di Siena From Rumour to Glory: the Personification of Fame in the Middle Ages. Arnoud Visser, Utrecht University The Renaissance of Fame FAME AND CELEBRITY STUDIES’ HISTORICAL TURN - 2: THE FORMATIONS OF CELEBRITIZATION AND CELEBRIFICATION? INVESTIGATION OF PUBLIC INDIVIDUALITY AND SCANDAL IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT, REVOLUTION AND CONTEMPORARY ERAS. Eva Giloi, Rutgers University-Newark Twilight of the Gods, Dawn of the Heroes: Celebrity, Charisma and Hero-Worship as Paths to Power in the Age of Revolution Katja Lee, University of Western Australia The Contemporary History of the Notorious in the 20th and 21st century POLITICAL UNIONS: THE CELEBRIFICATION OF THE BRITISH-AMERICAN SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP Shelley Cobb, University of Southampton “Political Soulmates”: Reagan, Thatcher, and the Powerful Chemistry of Celebrity Coupledom Hannah Hamad, Cardiff University “I Will Be With You, Whatever”: Blair and Bush’s Baghdadi Bromance Neil Ewen, University of Winchester “An unholy alliance”: Trump and Farage’s Celebrity Populism GIRL MELTDOWN: GIRLS, SCANDAL AND CELEBRITY Fiona Handyside, University of Exeter Becoming the ‘anti-girl’: Shopping and Scandal in Contemporary Hollywood 6 Danielle Hipkins, University of Exeter Surviving Berlusconi from the Margins: Scandalous girls becoming women in the Italian media Catherine O’Rawe, Bristol University Girls, Stardom, and the Danger of Film Acting in Post-war Italy “NO PLACE FOR SISSIES”: CELEBRITY AND THE AGING FEMALE BODY Georges-Claude Guilbert, Université Le Havre Normandie Age, Gender and Politics: the uncommon case of Brigitte Macron Brenda R. Weber, Indiana University Flipping the Scripts on Gender, Sexuality, and Aging: Grace and Frankie and Orgasms on Demand 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome p. 9 Keynotes Speakers Abstracts 10 Parallel Sessions Abstracts 15 Panels Abstracts 72 Delegates’ Short Biographies 94 Practical Information 118 8 Welcome! Dear delegates, A warm and sincere welcome to the fourth international Celebrity Studies Conference Desecrating Celebrity, hosted by Sapienza Università di Roma, and sponsored by Routledge, Fondazione Sapienza, PHD Programme in History of Europe and Nuova Cultura Publisher. Scholars have been drawn from around the world to reflect on the conference’s driving theme Desecrating Celebrity: what happens when celebrities lose their own status? How can celebrities manage their status in the contemporary fluid media-scape? What role do media rituals have in building representations of both celebrification and degradation? What role does the audience play in desecrating a celebrity? What set of communicative practices may compose a degradation ceremony, transforming the social identity of the celebrity into another of a lower rank (such as an ordinary person)? These are just some of the questions that will guide us through a wonderfully rich and diverse three day conference filled with keynotes, panels, presentations, discussions, and social events. We ask you to embrace the philosophy of the conference, that is to share, discuss and debate, in an open, constructive and supportive environment, the ideas that emerge in and across the keynotes, panels and papers you go to see and hear. For three days, Rome, famous for being the Eternal city of visible history, will truly become the City of Celebrity. A special issue of the journal Celebrity Studies will be dedicated to the best papers of the conference; details of submission requirements will be available on the website after the conference. As Celebrity Studies is committed to fostering and sharing high quality academic research and being a central space for the field to grow and explore new ideas, the conference committee is pleased to announce that we will publish electronic proceedings. Moreover, a special issue of Mediascapes Journal (http://www.mediascapesjournal.it/) will be dedicated to media and celebrities. The deadline for sending full papers is August 30th 2018. More information about length and style will be available on the website after the conference and it will also be promoted via emails to all delegates. At the end of this booklet, you will find practical information about the city of Rome and about conference venues. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our keynotes, to our review board, for their support in helping us to prepare for these three upcoming days. Let’s celebrate! The scientific committee: Romana Andò (chair) James Bennett Neil Ewen Gaston Franssen Hannah Hamad Andrea Minuz Sean Redmond Alessandro Saggioro 9 Keynotes speakers ABSTRACTS (in alphabetical order) 10 Lucy Bolton, Queen Mary, University of London Beautiful penitent whore: the desecrated celebrity of Mary Magdalene, Superstar Marina Warner writes: “The Magdalene, like Eve, was brought into existence by the powerful undertow of misogyny in Christianity, which associates women with the dangers and degradations of the flesh” (1994: 225). Mary Magdalene is a superstar: a perennial character of cultural fascination in the East and the West, embodying the classic dichotomy of virgin and whore. In this paper, I will examine her as a celebrity and a film star, using the way in which star studies examines the sources of meaning in a star image, in order to encompass and analyse her contradictory elements. This will be an interdisciplinary encounter with Mary Magdalene, from the perspectives of theology, church and art history, feminist film and media studies, celebrity and pop culture. My aim is to provide a means for productive analysis of her unique