Helen Thornham - Renewing Feminisms

Helen Thornham is Research Fellow at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. She is the author of Ethnographies of the Videogame: Narrative, Gender and Praxis (2011) and co-editor, with Simon Popple, of Content Cultures (I.B.Tauris, 2014). Her research focuses on gender and mediations, narrative, discourse and power and she is currently researching transformations of broadcasting.

Elke Weissmann is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at Edge Hill University. She has published widely on television, in particular in the area of television drama and global television, as well as representations of violence. Her books include The Forensic Sciences of CSI: How to Know about Crime (2011). She is Vice-Chair of the Television Studies Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA).

Contents

This book initially emerged from a lively and passionate debate about feminism during a conference we both attended. We had just heard an increasingly familiar construction of feminism as apolitical, individualistic and focused on consumption, and we were sitting, talking to so-called second-wavers and highlighting how the same issues were continuing to structure our struggles. It seemed time for an intervention. The idea of a symposium that would bring different generations of feminists together to debate continuities, lived and shared experiences and the political, social and cultural tensions that emerged through these experiences, was born. With support from Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn of MeCCSAs Womens Media Studies Network and Heather Sutherland de Moreno, we organized what turned out to be the first of many feminist events at different institutions that, together, formed the basis of this book.

Thus, as always, this book has a complex history and wouldnt exist if it wasnt for the support of different people and institutions. This starts with MeCCSAs Womens Media Studies Network, Anita Biressi, Heather Nunn and Heather Sutherland de Moreno, without all of whom the symposium would not have happened. Mire Messenger Davies, who supported the funding applications and the book project throughout. Sue Thornham, Maureen McNeil and Christine Geraghty, for being the inspirations that they continue to be. The University of Reading, in particular Jonathan Bignell, which allowed us to use their premises for the symposium. All the wonderful presenters at the symposium and the people who came to listen; it was a fantastic day and gave us the courage to go forward with this book. The excellent scholars who shared their feminist thinking with us, wanted to engage with old and new debates and contributed to this book. The reviewer whose feedback helped us to strengthen our own narratives in the introduction. Philippa Brewster, who showed interest in this project from the word go and has been a helpful and supportive editor. Our families, for hosting meals and providing wine so we could spend all evening talking about the book. And each other, for such an excellent working relationship.

Kristin Aune is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Derby. Her research and teaching interests lie in the areas of gender, feminism, religion and youth. Recent publications include articles in Feminist Review and Men and Masculinities and the book Reclaiming the F Word: The New Feminist Movement (co-written with Catherine Redfern; Zed Books, 2010). She is editing a special issue of Social Movement Studies about new feminist movements in contemporary Europe.

Vicky Ball is Lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland. She is currently writing a book on the British female ensemble drama (19692011) for Manchester University Press and co-editing (with Melanie Bell) a special edition of the Journal of British Cinema and Television on the topic of womens work in the British film and television industries. She has published on gender and television, and she is a member of the Executive Committee of the Womens Film and Television Histories Network: UK/Ireland.

Caroline Bassett is Reader in Digital Media at the University of Sussex and co-leads the digital media stream of ECREA, the European Communication and Research Association. She is widely published on gender, mobile computing, narrative and cultural form and is currently completing research exploring hostility to computing across a series of professional and community arenas using historical archives in the UK and USA.

Anita Biressi is Reader in Media Cultures at Roehampton University. Her research interests include popular journalism and tabloid culture, media spectacle, reality programming, documentary and factual film and television. She is currently writing a book with Heather Nunn about class in contemporary British culture.

Sonia De La Cruz is a PhD candidate at the University of Oregon, where she also teaches. Her research explores the relationship of cultural work and traumatic experiences in Latin American cultures. Her research is partly practice-based and has so far produced a 52-minute documentary. She is part of the Centre for Latino/a and Latin American Studies