Some Origins of Celebrity Culture in Mid-Georgian England: A Microhistory (November 2013)
A talk was held: George Rousseau (University of Oxford), ‘Some Origins of Celebrity Culture in Mid-Georgian England: a Microhistory’. His book, The Notorious Sir John Hill: The Man Destroyed by Ambition in the Era of Celebrity was shortlisted for the Oscar Kenshur Prize.
The Book of Fame (March 2014)
An interdisciplinary workshop was held showcasing manuscripts, music, and artefacts from the Bodleian Library.
Georgian and Romantic celebrity culture was fundamentally connected with the consumption and collection of material objects. The workshop offered a chance to inspect a series of unique items from this period, presented by scholars from the Bodleian Library and Oxford University in relation to ideas of fame and celebrity.
New Directions in Celebrity (April 2014)
How have ideas of fame been transformed in different times and places, and why? How do concepts of fame, renown, reputation, notoriety or celebrity influence the way a society imagines itself and its individuals?
The Oxford Celebrity Research Network brought together thinkers from philosophy, history, literature, media studies, art history and classics, with an interest in these questions, for a workshop to start conversations about the idea of fame across disciplines and periods: from the heroes of ancient Rome to Nick Clegg.
Celebrity Beasts 1738-1826 (June 2014)
Talks from visiting speakers were held about two famous eighteenth-century animals, Clara the Rhino and Chunee the Elephant, their deaths, and their afterlives today.
Sally Tagholm: "In Search of Miss Clara"
Robert Wenley (Barber Institute of Fine Arts): "Clara the Celebrity Rhino - in 3D"
Helen Cowie (University of York): "Buns, Guns and Elephant Steak: The Life and Death of Chunee the Elephant"
Crucibles of Celebrity: Fame in the Eighteenth Century (June 2014)
An interdisciplinary day workshop on the intersections between an emerging celebrity culture and Christianity, crime, and courts. The workshop sought to draw attention back to the continuing importance of religion, royal or elite patronage, and crime and scandal; taking an informal and interdisciplinary approach to a range of figures, from George Whitefield to the Princesse de Lamballe, and from Alfred the Great to anonymous highwaymen.
1 | Celebrity and Christianity
Dr Peter Forsaith (Church History, Oxford Brookes), Simon Lewis (History, Univ), Jessica Haldeman (English, York)
2 | Court and Elite
Dr Oliver Cox (History, TORCH, Oxford), Arlene Leis (Art History, York), Sarah Grant (History, St Hilda's)
3 | Notoriety
Dr Nicola Phillips (History, Kingston University London), Camille Pidoux (English, Lincoln), Dr Catherine Watson (History, Oxford Brookes)
Authorship, Fame, and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Britain (November 2014)
Part of "The Author in the Popular Imagination" series this event brought together scholars from across the range of European languages and literatures (including English) to question in what ways, and to what ends, the public construction of the author took place.
Dr Tom Mole (Edinburgh): ‘Celebrity and Anonymity in Romantic Britain’.
Dr Sandra Mayer (Vienna/Oxford): ‘Following the Primrose Path: Literary and Political Fame in Commemorations of Benjamin Disraeli’.
The Many Lives of Benjamin Disraeli: Fame, Legacy, Representations (March 2015)
A symposium dedicated to ‘The Many Lives of Benjamin Disraeli: Fame, Legacy, Representations’ brought together scholars from English Literature, History, Theology, and Art History to discuss new currents in both the scholarship and the editorial and curatorial work on Disraeli. The symposium facilitated a broad discussion of Disraeli’s many parallel (after)lives, representations, and his intellectual legacy within his Victorian contexts and beyond.
England's Hope: Princess Charlotte of Wales and the Hanoverian Royal Family (June 2015)
A symposium dedicated to Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817) took place in the Print Room at the Ashmolean Museum, which facilitated a discussion that considers Princess Charlotte as a fulcrum in the latter years of the Hanoverian dynasty.
After-Image: Life-Writing and Celebrity (September 2015)
A conference was held to consider the interplay between two connected fields: celebrity and life-writing.
Panels 1&2
Andrew O’Hagan Keynote Address
‘Historical Reevaluations of Celebrity in the 18th and 19th Centuries’ Roundtable: Tom Mole (Edinburgh), Simon Morgan (Leeds Beckett), Professor Fara Dabhoiwala (Oxford) and Jessica Goodman (Cambridge). Chaired by Sandra Mayer (University of Vienna) and Ruth Scobie (Oxford).
Sarah Churchwell Keynote Address
Art & Action: The Intersections of Literary Celebrity and Politics (March 2016)
A one-day symposium was held to explore the intersections of literary celebrity and politics across historical periods and media. The event illuminated the interdependence of individual agency and processes of industry, media, and audience appropriation that has informed the production and consumption of fame and celebrity across historical periods, thereby shedding light on the cultural history of these phenomena.
Papers were followed by a round table discussion by an expert panel that aimed at a general exploration of the socio-political dimension of cultural production and revisited some of the day’s recurring themes revolving around the author as public intellectual and political spokesperson who is caught up between ideals of moral responsibility and the imperatives of a celebrity-centred marketplace.
Celebiography: Celebrity and Life-Writing in Dialogue (November 2016)
A one day workshop.
Paper by Emma Smith, Tobias Heinrich, Julia Lajta-Novak, and Ginette Vincendeau included case studies from different cultural and historical contexts, focusing on biographical subjects as diverse as celebrity actresses and celebrity books, followed by a round table discussion featuring Hermione Lee, Philip Bullock, Ruth Scobie, and screenwriter Lindsay Shapero, and a Q&A with Will Brooker, including footage from his documentary Being Bowie.
The Celebrity Interview: History, Aesthetics, Method (January 2017)
The second in a new series events focusing on the intersections of life-writing and celebrity.
Panel discussion dedicated to the genre of the celebrity interview.
Talk: “Interviews and the Work of Celebrity”, Rebecca Roach (King’s College London) considered the labour involved in a format often derided as being little else but celebrity gossip, even though it has become the predominant mode of (self)promotion for authors and other public figures.
Anneleen Masschelein (University of Leuven, Belgium) examined the practice of the recorded last interview by eminent intellectuals, such as Dennis Potter, Edward Said, and Stuart Hall.
The panel was rounded off by a ‘meta interview’: a conversation between critic and biographer Hermione Lee and arts journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson about the art and method of the celebrity interview.
