Virtual conference schedule (UK timings)
Day 1 – Friday 30 October 2020
12.30–1.00pm
Welcome from Professor Don MacRaild
Introduction to the Conference Programme by Dr Karen McNally, London Metropolitan University
1.00–2.20pm
Panel 1: The Politics of Reality TV During a Reality TV Presidency
Chair: Mike Chopra-Gant, London Metropolitan University
Stephane Azarian, University of Roehampton, ‘Dragged by the Sissy: Trump Parody on RuPaul’s Drag Race’
Rachel Meltzer, John F. Kennedy Institute, The Free University, Berlin, ‘Protesting Trump’s Act: Dragging Women Into It’
Laura Langlade, University of Roehampton, ‘“It’s me against the world, as usual”: #MeToo and Exploring the self-victimisation of power in the Trump era and MTV’s The Challenge: Final Reckoning’
2.20–2.30pm Tea/coffee break
2.30–3.50pm
Panel 2: Women, #MeToo and Contesting the Patriarchy Under Trump
Chair: Professor Marguerite Chabrol, Université Paris 8
Jen Atkins, Florida State University, ‘“The New Normal”: The Handmaid’s Tale and Cosplay Activism in Trump’s America’
Steven Cohan, Syracuse University, 'Fosse/Verdon and the #MeToo Moment'
Lucinda Rasmussen, University of Alberta, ‘Nasty Older Women and a Golden Boy: How Gendered Tropes in Jane the Virgin Aim to Destabilize the American Heteropatriarchy’
3.50–4.00pm Tea/coffee break
4.00–5.40pm
Panel 3: Digital and Audio-Visual Messaging and Meaning
Chair: Professor Jennifer Harding, London Metropolitan University
Marissa Salas, University of Central Florida, ‘Twitter’s Publics and Counterpublics of the Trumpian Bargain’
Natalia Kovalyova, University of Texas, ‘The Digital Means of a Publics Formation: An Ethnographic Study of #MAGA2020’
Júlia Durand, University of Lisbon and Toby Huelin, University of Leeds, ‘Sounds Like Money? Stock Music, Television, and Donald Trump’
Carmen Celestini, University of Waterloo, ‘Tweets, Conspiracies, Moral Panics, and Masks of Freedom'
5.40–6.10pm Meal break
6.10–7.30pm
Panel 4: Narrative, Genre and Cultural Critique in Television Fiction
Chair: Oliver Gruner, University of Portsmouth
Charlotte Gough, Manchester Metropolitan University, ‘Postmodern Patriarchy and the “Trumpocalypse” in American Horror Story (2018)’
Reece Goodall, University of Warwick, ‘Taking The Good Fight to Trump: Impeachment and the 25th Amendment as Narrative Devices’
Greg Frame, Bangor University and Hannah Andrews, Edge Hill University, ‘Teaching Demons and Eating Nazis: Morality in Trump-Era Fantasy Comedy’
7.30–7.40pm Tea/coffee break
7.40–8.50pm
Keynote address
James Poniewozik, Chief Television Critic at the New York Times and author of Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America (W W Norton, 2019)
‘The Most Objectionable Program: How TV Divided and Conquered America’
Q&A moderated by Dr Karen McNally
Day 2 – Saturday 31 October 2020
12.45–1.00pm
Welcome to Day 2 from Dr Karen McNally
1.00–2.20pm
Panel 5: Twitter, Celebrity and Political Media Strategies
Chair: Andrew Moran, London Metropolitan University
Rafał Kuś, Jagiellonian University, ‘Making America Great Again, One Tweet at a Time: The Rhetoric of Trump on Twitter’
Susan J. Douglas, University of Michigan, ‘Breaking the Rules of Political Communication: Trump’s Successes and Miscalculations’
2.20–2.30pm Tea/coffee break
2.30–3.50pm
Panel 6: Journalism, the News Media and Representing Trump
Chair: Wendy Sloane, London Metropolitan University
Robert E. Gutsche Jr., Lancaster University, ‘Doing Trump’s Dirty Work? How Fighting Trump Veils Problems of Journalistic Power’
Liane Tanguay, University of Houston-Victoria, ‘Reality TV “Gets Real”: CNN and the 2016 Election Campaign’
Nelson Okorie, Pan-Atlantic University, ‘Global Media Narratives, Donald Trump and the Promise of Nationalism’
3.50–4.00pm Tea/coffee break
4.00–5.20pm
Panel 7: Understanding Trump Through Hyperreality, Disinformation and Home Shopping
Chair: Professor Sunny Singh, London Metropolitan University
Barry Mauer, University of Central Florida, ‘Trump, Dismediation, and the Cognitive Immune System’
Alan N. Shapiro, University of the Arts, Bremen, ‘Is Trump a Fascist or is He the Parody of Fascism?’
Vinzenz Hediger, Goethe University, ‘The Politics of Status Elevation: Donald J. Trump’s Home Shopping Governance’
5.20–5.40pm Tea/coffee break
5.40–6.40pm
Panel 8
Chair: Professor Sharon Monteith, Nottingham Trent University
Will DiGravio, Kevin B. Lee and Cydnii Wilde
‘Curating the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist’ and Q&A
6.40pm
Closing of Conference – Dr Karen McNally
