[csaa-forum] CFP Celebrity Colonialism

[John Gunders]

Posted by request. Apologies for cross-posting

"Celebrity Colonialism: Fame, Representation, and Power in Colonial and
Post-Colonial Cultures"

Call for Submissions to an Edited Collection of Academic Papers

Colonialism and postcolonialism produce their fair share of celebrities,
yet the meanings, forms, and functions of celebrities within colonial
and post-colonial cultures have received little scholarly attention. 

Invitations are extended to scholars who wish to contribute to a
collection of papers that explores the various and ambivalent
relationships between the cultures of celebrity and (post)colonialism.
In particular papers are sought that examine
*	Celebrities and the Colonial Moment: how have radio, art, film,
literary, exploration, and other celebrities of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries been implicated in colonial and anti-colonial
processes? 
*	Celebrities and the Contemporary Politics of Benevolence: from
Hollywood celebrities adopting children from developing nations, to
music superstars advocating global economic reforms, how do celebrities
influence contemporary public understanding of the line between
benevolence and exploitation?  How is celebrity questioned, critiqued,
and resisted in alternative media? 
*	Celebrities and Subalternity: from UK's Celebrity Big Brother to
Bollywood and Indigenous Australian cinema actors, how do celebrities
complicate the politics of race and class, and how do indigenous
celebrities function as cultural intermediaries for the negotiation of
contemporary political and economic inequalities?  Are there such things
as 'subaltern celebrities,' and if so, how do they function within
post-colonizing cultures to shape cultural memory and intervene in
process such as the 'Reconciliation' movements of the 1990s? 
In May 2006 journalist Brendan O'Neill coined the term 'celebrity
colonialism' while reporting on the drama attending the Namibian birth
of the child of Hollywood celebrities Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. The
term was meant to describe the power celebrities possess to influence
public and private institutions within colonial and post-colonial
cultures. Colonial cultures have always produced celebrities, yet there
has been little examination of them through the prism of their
celebrity.  In April this year the University of Queensland Postcolonial
Research Group hosted a two-day symposium to explore the various and
ambivalent relationships between the cultures of celebrity and
colonialism.  The present project will showcase a number of the papers
from that conference while seeking contributions from other scholars
working in this field.  The collection will seek to answer the
questions: How do celebrities function within colonial and post-colonial
cultures? In what way have various famous figures made their name
through their celebration of or antagonism towards colonial and
neo-colonial imperialism? How does the popular appeal of celebrity
inflect the way (post-) colonial matters can be brought before and
received by the public?
Interested contributors should email a 250 word proposal to Dr Robert
Clarke (rgclarke at uq.edu.au), along with a biographical note, by no later
than Friday 27 July 2007.  Final submission of papers would be required
by no later than Friday 27 June 2008.

Dr Robert Clarke

Lecturer
Faculty of Policy Studies
Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan	Honorary Research Consultant
School of English, Media Studies and Art History
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia	

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