Who Runs the World? Girls, Leadership and Celebrity

Who Runs the World? Girls, Leadership and Celebrity
Symposium and Project Launch
16th June 2017, Woburn Room, Senate House, Malet Street London, WC1E 7HU, 1.30 Registration for 2pm start
This event brings together those researching and working with girls to discuss celebrity, gender and leadership. We will interrogate the discourses of empowerment, aspiration and identification which circulate in texts addressing girls as future leaders. We seek to understand the models of female leadership offered to girls within their own (mediated) experiences and within global contexts of transnational celebrity campaigns.
The topic is highly timely; while leadership continues to be overwhelmingly associated with masculinity in the public imaginary, issues faced by women in leadership roles come into sharp focus. These include the rise of public misogyny as witnessed in Trump’s presidential campaign, the vilification of women politicians and campaigners online, and sexist representations of political leaders in mainstream media. Concerns about gender and leadership can be seen to be spreading from political into more popular domains, for example, the global outcry about the United Nations’ nomination of Wonder Woman as an ambassador for women’s empowerment.
These concerns are being extended from adult women to girlhood. Access to role models is seen as key to the development of girls’ leadership aspirations. Most prominently, Sheryl Sandberg has expanded her ‘Lean In’ project to address girls, their carers and educators through a global campaign titled ‘Ban Bossy’, mobilising celebrities to help girls overcome negative socialisation regarding female leadership. Whether in celebrity endorsed campaigns, or in the framing of the 2016 American election as the pivotal moment in which Hillary Clinton would teach ‘every little girl who dreams big [that they] can be anything [they] want—even president’, celebrities are prominent in (and propagators of) discourses around potential future girl leaders and how to shape them.
13.30 Registration 
14.00 Welcome and opening address – Michele Paule and Hannah Yelin (Oxford Brookes)
14.10 Heather Mendick: ‘Nicki Minaj vs Beyoncé? feminism, un/happiness and celebrity’
14.40 Janet Batsleer (Manchester Metropolitan) and Grainne McMahon (Huddersfield): ‘Girls, 'leaning in' and faux-empowerment’
15.10 Anita Biressi (Roehampton): ‘Picturing success: discourses of self(ie) confidence’
15.30 Break
15.50 Hannah Yelin and Michele Paule: Introduction to the project 'Who Runs the World: Girls, Leadership, and Celebrity'
16.10 Round table discussion with all 6 speakers and audience questions
17.00 End
17.30 We will continue discussions in a nearby pub!
The symposium is being organised by Michele Paule and Hannah Yelin from Oxford Brookes University. Together they are embarking on a research project exploring girls’ relationship with leadership figures, and their imaginings, experiences and aspirations relating to ‘being in charge’. This project brings together their expertise and interests in girlhood, education, media and celebrity cultures.