The study of celebrity has become increasingly important for understanding contemporary culture, politics, and media. In a world shaped by digital technologies, global crises, changing ideas of identity, and shifting social values, celebrity remains a powerful cultural force. Celebrities influence how people think, what they value, and how success, identity, and power are imagined.
The conference is grounded in the rich interdisciplinary foundations of celebrity studies, drawing on seminal works such as Ellis Cashmore’s Celebrity Culture, Graeme Turner’s Understanding Celebrity, Christine Gledhill’s Stardom: Industry of Desire, and Richard Dyer’s influential texts Stars and Heavenly Bodies. These foundational studies show that celebrities are not simply famous individuals, but carefully constructed public images shaped by media industries, cultural values, and audience expectations. More recent scholarship — including Joshua Gamson’s Claims to Fame, Chris Rojek’s Celebrity, and studies on micro-celebrity and the branded self — demonstrates how fame continues to evolve in the age of reality television, influencers, and social media platforms.
Designed to be engaging and accessible, the conference also introduces students to celebrity studies as a field that examines how people become famous, why they remain famous, and how audiences respond to them. Scholars study film stars, sports icons, influencers, reality TV personalities, and political leaders to understand how fame is produced, managed, and controlled in different cultural contexts.
A special focus of the conference is ageing celebrity, inspired by emerging research such as “The Older, the Better! Ageing Celebrity in Contemporary Media and Sport Contexts”. This perspective explores how fame changes over time, how ageing stars negotiate visibility, and how nostalgia, memory, and legacy shape celebrity culture. It highlights that celebrity is not only about youth and glamour, but also about long careers, cultural continuity, and lasting influence.
This interdepartmental conference invites scholars and students to critically explore the changing nature of fame, visibility, and public image across historical, contemporary, and digital contexts. Moreover, they are encouraged to explore celebrity in relation to gender, race, class, age, sexuality, fandom, surveillance, politics, social media, and popular culture.
We welcome papers that explore celebrity through intersections with race, gender, class, age, sexuality, affect, fandom, surveillance, politics, and digital culture.
1. Celebrity and Digital Cultures
2. Celebrity, Labor, and Political Economy
3. Histories and Temporalities of Fame
4. Ageing, Longevity, and Life-Cycle Fame
5. Celebrity, Society, and Public Ethics
Submissions should be sent to: [email protected]
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