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Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizens a DISSERTATION

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Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizens a DISSERTATION Idols of Goodwill: Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizens A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Julie Wilson IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Adviser: Dr. Laurie Ouellette November 2011 copyright Julie Wilson 2011 Acknowledgments Laurie Ouellette taught me how to think. Really think. As an adviser, mentor, writing partner, and scholar, she taught me how to dwell in between theory, texts, institutions, history, and existing critical frameworks. Without her clarity of mind, this project would not have been conceptualized, much less realized. Throughout the writing process, Laurie balanced unyielding belief in me and this project with gentle yet persistent challenge to many of its most basic parameters. If I have made a meaningful contribution, it is because of her. I would have not found my way to this point without the guidance, both professional and intellectual, of Ron Greene. At a crucial moment in my graduate career, Ron stepped in and helped me to find and make a home in Communication Studies, while showing me that the best critical and theoretical work can indeed happen within a discipline. Ron also reintroduced me to Foucault in a way that profoundly impacted this project. For all this, I will long be in his debt. Gil Rodman, so generous throughout my time at Minnesota, has been and will always be a whisper in my ear, reminding me that the best cultural studies can do is to provide deep and profound knowledge of contexts. I cannot express (though I hope it shows) how much my work has been shaped by this precept. Mary Vavrus has been more than my teacher and Director of Graduate Studies; she has been a role model and a vision of what an academic life can be. i To my early supporters, mentors, and teachers at Minnesota, including Shevvy Craig, Richard Leppert, Cesare Casarino, and Robin Brown, thank you for helping get to where I needed to go. To Kirt Wilson and Ed Schiappa, thank you for opening your doors to me. All of your warmth and support are things for which I continue to be immensely grateful. Also, a big thank you to Diane Negra and Graham Knight whose sincere interest in my work has, at crucial times, provided much needed validation and inspiration. This project has been shaped in specific ways by a few important encounters. Michael Barnett helped me to understand why stars were valuable to global governance. His brief meeting with me in the early phases sent me down a specific path, one that, I believe, made this project particularly innovative. When I defended my prospectus, Lary May encouraged me to be more historical. I hope my readers will recognize the significance of his nudging. At the 2010 Console- ing Passions conference in Eugene, Oregon, I met Stacy Takacs, whose generous feedback to and suggestions for my work are all over Chapter Two and greatly impacted the overall articulation of the project. Without the support of my colleagues in the Department of Communication Arts at Allegheny College, this project may never have found its current form. Ishita Sinha Roy, Dan Crozier, Mike Keeley, Vesta Silva, Courtney Bailey, Michael Mehler, Jon Weibel, Mark Cosdon, Beth Watkins, and River ii Branch: thanks for protecting me, encouraging me, and giving me a beautiful space to think and work. A special thanks to Barbara Shaw for looking out for me and for ever-so gently keeping me on task this past year, and to Emily Yochim, whose mix of sharp mind and warm spirit have meant so much to me already. Thank you for reading my work, thinking with me, and mostly, for being my dear friend. I’m so looking forward to our future collaborations. As with all dissertations, mine has been enlivened by a series of friendships with fellow graduate students and scholars including Marisol Alverez, Elizabeth Ault, Stuart Davis, Alicia Gibson, Mickey Greene, Matt Hadley, Thomas Johnson, Rebecca Jurisz, Alice Leppert, Mark Martinez, Matt May, Helen Morgan-Parmett, Pam Nettleton, Tony Nadler, Matt Stoddard, and Emanuelle Wessells. Ann Wilson, Dana Wilson, John and Cathy Wilson, Orville Baughman, Katie and Paul Barboa, BeJay Gronaur, Deb Tompkins, Bud Tompkins, Patricia Langrek, Terrance Hopson, Eleanor McGough, Gretchen and Kojo McLennan, Bryan Kennedy, Elizabeth Cowan, and the late Hal Janney: thank you for always believing in me, supporting me, and keeping me grounded and sane. Kathie Smith: you are my best friend and the best person I know. Thanks for sticking with me all these years; your friendship is the biggest gift. Joe Tompkins: you may lived trapped in your head, but I have never been loved and cared for so well. iii for Annie Lafave who taught me so much about the limits and necessity of caring iv Abstract Idols of Goodwill: Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizens provides a new critical, historical perspective on media celebrity by tracing the emergence of stars as icons of global caring and international community. From early UNICEF educational documentaries featuring Danny Kaye to the on-going celebrity efforts to rebuild Haiti, I document how the discourse of stardom emerged as a powerful cultural technology of global governmentality by providing a material base for international regimes of development in Western contexts. Tasked with shaping global citizens responsive to international institutions and the general welfare of the world, caring stars like Angelina Jolie, Bono, and George Clooney are much more than publicity stunts for global charities, media industries, or the stars themselves. Rather, they are harbingers of global liberalism, helping to harvest the political, economic, and cultural conditions for cosmopolitan world order. v Idols of Goodwill: Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizens Table of Contents Prologue Stars in Haiti...1 Chapter One Introduction: Stardom, Citizenship, and Governmentality in Global Times...8 The Triumph of Caring Stars...8 Stars: From Meaning to Governmentality...17 Idols of Goodwill and Global Governmentality...26 Star Discourse and the Liberal Arts of Governing...38 Caring Stars and the Making of Global Citizens...49 Chapter Two Mr. UNICEF: Celebrity Diplomacy, Sentimental Education, and One World Culture...58 Sentimental Education and One World Culture...61 Celebrity Diplomacy and U.S. Soft Power...72 Celebrity Diplomacy, Sentimental Education, and Global Governmentality...77 vi Celebrity Diplomacy, Sentimental Education, and Contemporary One World Culture...97 Chapter Three Bleeding Heart: The “Spirit of Audrey” and the Rise of Cosmopolitan Stardom...109 The Spirit of Audrey...109 Cosmopolitan Stardom...111 Global Cinderella...117 UNICEF and the Hepburn Aura...126 Global Melodrama...132 Pastoral Power, Charitable Femininity, and Global Governmentality...137 Chapter Four Global Citizen Brand: Angelina Jolie and the Digital Media Economy of Global Care...144 Brands and Interactivity...149 Jolie and Cultural Powers of Post-Studio Stardom...157 Global Citizen Brand: Jolie and UNHCR...166 Civic Intermediary...176 Mobilizing Digital Care, Building Governing Capital...185 vii Chapter Five Conclusion: Cosmopolitan Stars and the Promotional Politics of Global Governing...199 Back to Haiti...199 Cosmopolitan Stars and Global Governance...204 The Promotional Character of Contemporary Global Governing...212 Bono and the Liberal Arts of Promotional Politics...220 One World Under the Stars...229 Epilogue Letter from Jane...236 Bibliography...257 viii Prologue Stars in Haiti The devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010 was immediately a matter of international concern. Humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross, Oxfam, and UNICEF struggled to mobilize resources and deliver care. The Obama administration quickly tapped USAID to coordinate the international relief effort. Past U.S. presidents Bill Clinton (already a special envoy to Haiti) and George W. Bush put aside past political differences and founded the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. All the while, news reporters from across the globe descended on Port-au-Prince to cover the tragedy. Screens, mobile and static, were riddled with all too familiar images of famines (Biafra 1968, Ethiopia 1984) and hurricanes (New Orleans 2005) past: images of black bodies, wounded, hungry, many on the brink of death, if not already dead. There were other all too familiar images as well. Images of caring stars and celebrities eager to help the relief effort. George Clooney organized the Hope for Haiti Now telethon in partnership with MTV networks which aired globally on January 22, 2010. Hollywood elite (e.g., Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Swift, and Steven Spielberg) manned phone lines, while pop stars, from Beyonce to Sting, performed on a sparse stage, careful to respect the somber tone set by the seasoned celebrity carer Clooney, who had previously 1 undertaken similar humanitarian televisual feats, including America: A Tribute to Our Heroes (2001) and Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope (2004). The New York Times’ Alessandra Stanley called the event “a study in carefully muted star power,” noting that, “Viewers are drawn to famous faces but at the same time turned off by too much piety and self-congratulation.”1 To date, the telethon has worked to bring in over 60 million dollars for relief efforts.2 The Hope for Haiti Now telethon was the main event in celebrity efforts surrounding Haiti, but there was also much happening behind the scenes, so to speak. On February 1, 2010, a group of over eighty musicians gathered after the 2010 Grammy Awards to record a new, updated version of “We Are the World,” entitled “We Are the World 25 for Haiti,” whose sale and distribution would benefit Haiti relief. (The original “We Are the World” single was also part of a massive celebrity organizing effort centered on the 1985 famine in Ethiopia.) Airing during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic games, the new single featured a rap verse about Haiti, as well as an eerie Janet and Michael Jackson duet, where the sister sings alongside tracks recorded by her recently deceased brother 25 years ago as part of the original “We Are the World” production.
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