| Student Conference
Student Conference

Pop Hero and Action Princess - Negotiating Gender in Popular Culture

12. - 13. Januar 2018 | Englisches Seminar der WWU Münster
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"Do Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, or Miley Cyrus contribute to feminist* discourses? Are Sherlock and Dr. Watson more than friends? And can Thor be a woman?"

Die Student Conference “Action Princess and Pop Hero - Negotiating Gender in Popular Culture” soll eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive auf die Verknüpfung der Konzepte Gender und Popkultur mit verschiedensten (besonders, aber nicht ausschließlich geisteswissenschaftlichen) Forschungsansätzen ermöglichen.

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Münster Lecture 2018

Theory and Practice in Feminism* Today?

Jan. 12, 2018 I 7pm I Lecture Hall JO1 (Johannisstr. 4)

Im Kontext der Studierendenkonferenz Pop Hero and Action Princess: Negotiating Gender in Popular Culture statt, die unter anderem von Promovierenden der GS PoL organisiert wird, findet die diesjährige Münster Lecture statt.

Der internationale Women's March im Januar und die #MeToo-Debatte zeigen es deutlich: Feminismus hat Hochkonjunktur. Aber wie verhalten sich diese Grassroots-Bewegungen zur akademischen Praxis? Was ist dran an Alice Schwarzers jüngsten Vorwürfen, dass 'Genderwissenschaft' à la Judith Butler zu abstrakt und weltfremd sei? 

Die diesjährigen Münster Lectures befassen sich mit der Beziehung zwischen feministischer Theorie und Aktivismus. Dazu haben die Organisator*innen die Kulturwissenschaftlerin Laina Dawes vom Department of Music an der Columbia University (USA) sowie Sonia Eismann, Mitgründerin, Mitherausgeberin und Chefredakteurin des Berliner Missy Magazine: Magazin für Pop, Politik und Feminismus, eingeladen. Der Eintritt ist frei.

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Conference Program


Friday, January 12, 2018


14:00 – 14:30
Conference Registration


14:30 – 15:00
Conference Opening


15:00 – 16:30
Panel I: Gender on the TV Screen – Reading Queer Television

Valentina López Liendo (Heidelberg)
“Queer Latinas: Familia, Religion, Quinces and Coming Out”

Carolin Rolf (Hagen)
“Baiting the Fandom That Feeds You”

Kilian Schmidt (Dortmund)
“‘Sunny Is not a Woman!’- Transgender Representation in Germany’s Longest Running Soap Opera: Between Stabilizing Tropes and Queering the Lindenstraße


16:30 – 17:00
Coffee Break


17:00 – 18:30
Panel II: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on Gender

Julia Ditter (Freiburg)
“’Pussy Grabs Back’: Adapting The Handmaid’s Tale for the 21st Century”

Delia Kaltenbach (Köln)
“’Reader, I married him’ – Negotiating Feminist Protagonists, Happy Endings, and Romance”

Alyssa Steiner (Basel)
“The Afterlives of the Knights of the Roundtable: How Hollywood (Mis)Uses Arthurian Heroes to Construct Hegemonic Masculinity


18:30 – 19:00
Coffee Break


19:00 – 20:30
Keynote Lecture: “Theory and Practice in Feminism*? – On the Co-Dependency of Feminist* Theory and Feminist* Activism”

Sonja Eismann (Missy Magazine)

Laina Dawes (Columbia University, New York City)



Saturday, January 13, 2018


09:30 – 11:00
Panel III
: Countering Stereotypes, Challenging Discourses

Hedwig Lieback (Leipzig)
“Mocking the Discourse and Spreading It – The ‘Did You just Assume My Gender?’ Meme” and Its Double Function”

Somaye Rezaie (Wien)
“‘I’ll Tell You My Sins, so You Can Sharpen Your Knife’ – Hozier’s ‘Take Me to Church’ and the Foucaudian Ritual of Confession and Reverse Discourse”

Anna Köhler (Aachen)
“Wicked Women: Witches on Page and Screen from Macbeth to the Present”


11:00 – 11:30
Coffee Break


11:30 – 13:00
Panel IV: Performing Gender – Identity and Music Culture

Luis Groitl (Regensburg)
“‘Okay, Ladies, Now Let’s Get in Formation’: Agency, Black Female Identity, and Performance in Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’”

Svea Türlings (Münster)
“Queer Performances and Gender Transgression in the Case of David Bowie”

Janik Wetzel (Potsdam)
“Drag Queen of Coney Island – Lana DelRey and Heteronormativity


13:00 – 14:30
Lunch Break


14:30 – 16:00
Panel V
: Representing the Female Body

Julia Schneider (Paderborn)
“Challenging ‘Branded’ Bodies: Intersectional Feminism in Cecilia Ahern’s Flawed Series”

Sina Hellwing (Bochum)
“The Cyborg and the Prosthetic – Female Amputees on Screen”

Nic Doty (Freiburg)
“Holy Female, Batman: The Girl Wonder and the Visual Representation of the Beaten and Bloodied Female Body”


16:00 – 16:15
Coffee Break


16.15 – 17.45
Panel VI:
New Media – New Potential?

Anne Korfmacher (Freiburg)
“‘When You Get What You Want, You Feel Great!’ – Gender Negotiation in My Dad Wrote a Porno Podcast”

Fabian Schwarz (Halle-Wittenberg)
“The Design of Masculinity and Femininity in Video Games”

Sabrina Pischer (Bonn)
“Of Feminazis and Social Justice Warriors: Identity Politics and Feminist Activism Represented in American Alt-Right Meme Culture”


17:45 – 18:15
Closing Remarks: Popular Culture and Its Potential for Feminism*