What is a Girl Today? Reflections on Young Women and the Politics of Popular Culture

Location
Muirhead Tower, Room 121 and Online
Dates
Wednesday 29 January 2025 (14:00-16:00)

Celebrating the publication of Feminism, Young Women and Cultural Studies: The Birmingham Essays from 1975 onwards.

The Stuart Hall Archive Project and the Birmingham Sociology Network invite you to a presentation from Em. Prof. Angela McRobbie followed by responses from others working in the field.

Angela McRobbie will kick off this session with a presentation that discusses the pathways of 'girls studies' since her own beginnings in this terrain in 1975. She will describe that early work and the CCCS paradigms of youth subcultural theory, with the feminist responses formulated by examining the more mainstream fields of popular culture such as Jackie magazine, and the day to day activities of working class girls. She will also update the discussion with reference to a series of issues that have emerged since then, arguing that contemporary girl culture places too much of a burden on young women to be 'extraordinary'.

The presentation will be followed by responses from others working in the area, including Dr Dorothy Hobson, Dr Mindy Ptolomey (University of Glasgow), Dr Shardia Briscoe-Palmer (University of Nottingham) and Professor Rebecca Coleman (University of Bristol). The presentations will be followed by discussion and Q&A. This event celebrates the publication of McRobbie’s early Birmingham work alongside several new essays which engage with the decline of the magazine format, the rise of studentification and 'end' of subcultures, women and the music industry and the rise of 'new vintage' fashion.

Biography


Angela McRobbie, Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths University of London, completed an undergraduate degree at Glasgow University before embarking on research at the Birmingham University Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (under the Directorship of Stuart Hall) in 1974. Her early work from the mid-1970s onwards included topics on girls' magazines, youth cultures, and moral panics. At Goldsmiths University of London her expertise has included feminist theory, fashion as creative industry, and gender and culture within neoliberal regimes. She has been a recipient of EU Social Fund awards and the AHRC CREATe programme. In 2019 she was awarded an Hon. Doctorate from Glasgow University. Her recent books include Feminism and the Politics of Resilience 2020, Fashion as Creative Economy 2022 (with D Strutt and C Bandinelli) Ulrike Ottinger: Film, Art and the Ethnographic Imagination 2024, and Feminism, Young Women and Cultural Studies: The Birmingham Essays from 1975 Onwards 2024.  

  • This event is free and open to the public, staff and students.
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  • Please note this event is not being recorded.