Please email me at rebecca.williams@southwales.ac.uk to discuss potential future talks and public engagement activities.
Keynote Presentations
‘Roundtable Keynote’, Disney at 100 Years: Everlasting Entertainment and a Spellbinding Future, Virtual Conference [Hosted by Disney, Culture & Society Research Network], June 26-30, 2023.
‘Haptic Fandom, Spatial Transmedia & Corporate Co-Option: Mapping the Possibilities and Exclusions of Theme Park Participatory Cultures’, Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual Conference [Hosted by DePaul University, Chicago], October 2021.
‘Participatory Cultures and Place: Exploring the Practices and Politics of Theme Park Fandoms’, Anglistentag: German Association for the Study of English: Active Audiences, Fans and Participatory Culture: Reciprocal Communication and Creativity, Virtual Conference [Hosted by Universität Passau, Germany], September 2021.
‘Spatially Poaching the Haunted Mansion: The Perils, Pleasures & Participatory Affordances of Disney Theme Park Fandom’, A Celebration of Disney, DePaul University, Chicago, USA, May 2019.
‘Immortal fandom?; The post-object afterlives of Joss Whedon’s television shows’. Keynote presentation, 7th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses Kingston University, UK, July 2016.
Invited Research Seminars & Public Engagement Talks
Invited Symposium Participant: ‘Fandom and Spatial Adaptation in Transmedia Tourist Experiences’ at ‘‘To Be Continued: Defining, Producing, Performing, Consuming, and Theorizing Serials and Adaptations’, Hosted by University of Delaware [Virtual Conference], September 2022.
Invited participant: Roundtable on ‘Infinite Terror: Science Fiction, Horror & Genre Hybridity’. Hosted by BAFTSS Science Fiction & Fantasy and Horror Special Interest Groups [Virtual Event], February 2022.
‘Creativity, Connection & Coming Home: Theme Park Fandom and the Coronavirus Closures’, University of Huddersfield [Virtual Presentation], February 2022.
Invited participant for panel discussion on ‘Fan Spaces’, Virtual Event [Hosted by Society for Cinema and Media Studies; Fan & Audience Studies Special Interest Group], October 2021.
Invited panellist on ‘Fanthropology: The Power of the Fandom’, Communicate: UK Conference for Environmental Communicators, Virtual Conference [Hosted by The Natural History Consortium], September 2021.
‘Transmediality, Materiality and Paratextual Play in the Fan-Tourist Experience’, Salford University, February 2019.
Researching Theme Park Fandom: Distinction, Identity & Immersion’, Invited research seminar, Birmingham City University, February 2016.
“I can’t believe he has died”: Post-object fandom, ontological security, and actor/character deaths’, Communication, Media and Cultural Studies Research Unit seminar series, University of South Wales, February 2014.
Invited panel member for screening and discussion of Warm Bodies, for SciScreen: Fiction and Fact in Film. Part of Cardiff University’s Before I Die Festival, held at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, May 2013.
Location, location, location: Cult/mainstream celebrity in the small nation’, Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations, University of Glamorgan, November 2011.
Invited to present screening of Strigoi, for SciScreen: Fiction and Fact in Film, held at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, October 2011.
Invited panel member for screening and discussion of The Wolfman, for SciScreen: Fiction and Fact in Film: The Imaginaries of Science and Society, held at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, March 2010.
‘Screening the Nation: Wales and Landmark Television’, with Prof. Steve Blandford,Prof. Stephen Lacey and Dr. Ruth McElroy, BBC Audience Council Wales/Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries seminar, March 2010.
Invited research seminar: ‘BBC Wales’ Coal House at War audience project’, with Dr. Ruth McElroy, Swansea University, October 2008.
Conference Presentations
2023
- ‘“Not great, Bob!” Disney Parks, Anti-fandom & the Contested Authorship of the Celebrity CEO’, Disney at 100 Years: Everlasting Entertainment and a Spellbinding Future, Virtual Conference [Hosted by Disney, Culture & Society Research Network], June 26-29, 2023.
2022
‘“One Nation Under a Roof”: Fandom, Intimacy and the Domestic During the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual Conference [Hosted by DePaul University Chicago], October 2022
‘Spatial Poaching in the Wizarding Worlds: Reinventing and Reimagining Fan-Tourist Spaces’, Console-ing Passions 2022, Virtual Panel (Hosted by University of Central Florida], June 2022.
‘“Welcome Foolish Muppets”: Spatial Transmedia and Corporate Synergy in Disney+’s Muppets Haunted Mansion’, Popular Culture Association (PCA), Virtual Conference, April 2022.
‘When Hogwarts Isn’t Always There to Welcome You Home: Re-Examining Fan Tourist Practices in Harry Potter Themed Spaces’, SCMS: Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2022. Chicago, U.S.A. March/April 2022.
2021
Moderated roundtable on ‘Fan Methods: Negotiating Aca-Fan Identities’, Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual Conference [Hosted by DePaul University, Chicago], October 2021.
‘Affective and Appreciative Immersion in Themed Spaces: Mapping Potential Responses to Spatial Transmedia’, Worlds of Imagination: Media, Place and Tourism in Today’s Global World, Virtual Conference [Hosted by Erasmus University Rotterdam], April 2021.
‘Lone Fandom, Methods, and the Contested Legitimacy of Fan Studies’, SCMS: Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2021. Virtual Conference, March 2021.
2020
Salon on “The Practice and Politics of Theme Park Fandoms”, Fan Studies Network North America, Virtual Conference, October 2020.
‘Metonymic Celebrity’ and ‘Ani-embodiment’: Exploring Fan Encounters with Theme Park Characters’, Transformations in Celebrity Culture: The Fifth International Celebrity Studies Conference, University of Winchester, June 2020. [* paper/panel accepted, event cancelled due to COVID-19].
‘Co-Option Without Consent? The Re-appropriation and Regulation of Fan Practices in Themed Places’, Media Industries Conference 2020, Kings College London, April 2020. [* paper/panel accepted, event cancelled due to COVID-19].
2019
‘Dressing for Disney: Fandom, Materiality & Embodied Transmedia Extension’, Fan Studies Network Conference, Portsmouth University, June 2019.
2018
‘Spatial Transmedia, Participatory Cultures and the Global Theme Park’, Intersections: Japanese and Western Fan Studies in Conversation Symposium, Tokyo, Japan, December 2018.
‘Travels in Transmediality: Spatial Convergence, Participatory Cultures and the ‘Lecterverse’, with Dr. Ross Garner, The Production of Location: The Eighth International Tourism and Media (ITAM) Conference, University of Liverpool, 5-7 July 2018.
‘Of Mice and Minions: Fandom, ‘Ani-embodiment’ and “Metonymic Celebrity” in the Theme Park Character Encounter’, Fan Studies Network Conference 2018, Cardiff University, UK, June 2018.
‘The Goldblum that keeps on GIF-ing: Jurassic Park’s afterlife in meme culture’, 25 Years of Jurassic Park (1993): An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Palaeontological Imagination, Cardiff University, June 2018.
‘Butterbeer, Dole Whip and Duff: Materiality, paratexts, and consumable culture in the theme park fan experience’, SCMS: Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2018, Toronto, Canada, March 2018.
2017
‘Funko Hannibal in Florence: Transmediality and Paratextual Play in the Fan-Tourist Experience’, Fan Studies Network Conference, University of Huddersfield. June 2017.
‘Tomb Sweet Tomb: Transmediality, narrative and fandom at Disney’s Haunted Mansion’, Locating Imagination: Popular Culture, Tourism, and Belonging, Erasmus University Rotterdam, April 2017.
2016
‘‘‘I need to work but…’: Subcultural celebrity, labour and the celebrity/fan in the No Lynch/No Twin Peaks campaign’, 3rd International Celebrity Studies Conference: Authenticating Celebrity, University of Amsterdam, June 2016.
‘R.I.P River Country: Abandoned theme park rides, ontological security and online memorialization’, Fan Studies Network Conference 2016, University of East Anglia, June 2016.
2015
‘“Princess Elsa and her 13,000 square foot restroom”: Theme park fandom, replacement and the Disney brand’, Fan Studies Network Conference 2015, University of East Anglia, June 2015.
‘The resurrection of Twin Peaks: Fan identity, ontological security and authorship’, “I’ll See You in 25 Years” The Return of Twin Peaks and Generations of Cult TV’, University of Salford, May 2015.
‘The show from another place: Twin Peaks’ social media afterlife’, SCMS: Society of Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada, March 2015.
2013
‘Conceptualising ‘localebrity’: Stardom and celebrity in the small nation’, Topographies of Popular Culture, University of Tampere, Finland, October 2013.
‘Regeneration & replacement: Doctor Who, character, and post-object fandom’, Doctor Who: Walking in Eternity: An Interdisciplinary Conference Celebrating 50 Years of Adventures in Time and Space, University of Hertfordshire, September 2013.
‘Wandering Whitechapel: Place, the past, and the domestic in Gothic crime drama’, Cops on the Box: Crime Drama on Contemporary UK Television Screens, University of Glamorgan, March 2013.
2012
‘Location, location, location: Exploring celebrity, locality, and identity in the small nation’, Narratives and Social Memory: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, June 2012.
2011
‘Tonight’s the Night with …Captain Jack!: John Barrowman as celebrity/subcultural celebrity/localebrity’’,Alien Nation: A Conference on British Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Television, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, July 2011.
‘Transnational Twilighters: A Twilight fan community in Norway’, with Dr. Inger-Lise Kalviknes Bore, 4th Edinburgh International Film Audiences Conference, Edinburgh Filmhouse, March 2011.
2010
‘Unlocking The Vampire Diaries: Genre, authorship, and quality in the teen vampire series’, Vegetarians, VILFs and Fang-Bangers: Modern Vampire Romance in Print and on Screen, de Montfort University, Leicester, November 2010.
‘Screening the Nation: Landmark television and the representation of a small bilingual nation’, with Dr. Ruth McElroy, ECREA European Communication Conference, University of Hamburg, October 2010.
‘Portrayal, nation and Welsh contemporary landmark drama’, with Dr. Ruth McElroy, Theorising Wales: Gender, Culture, Politics, University of Wales Conference Centre, July 2010.
‘“Anyone who calls Muse a Twilight band will be shot on sight”: Music, fandom, and distinction in the Twilight franchise’, Popular Music Fandom: A One-Day Symposium, University of Chester, June 2010.
‘Channeling horror: Torchwood, monstrosity and the road to BBC1’, Investigating Torchwood: Texts, Contexts, Audiences, University of Glamorgan, June 2010.
2009
‘Making Sense of the Past? Television history and its participatory audiences’, with Dr. Ruth McElroy, Television History Conference, University of Lincoln, July 2009.
‘Press coverage of landmark television and the small nation: Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Wales’, “Locating Media” NECS Conference, Lund University, Sweden, June 2009.
‘Remembering Ourselves, Viewing the Others: participant audiences of historical reality TV’, with Dr. Ruth McElroy, Big Reveal: Lifestyle TV Conference, University of Brighton, May 2009.
2008
“Meeting in a dark alley!” Understanding fan/producer relationships through Bourdieu’s field theory in online Neighbours fandom, MECCSA Postgraduate Conference, University of Sussex, July 2008.
2007
‘Pure power, pure pleasure? Recontextualising fan/object and fan/fan relationships’, MeCCSA Postgraduate Conference, University of the West of England, Bristol, July, 2007.
‘Post-object fandom and the demise of The West Wing’, MeCCSA Postgraduate Sharing Experience Conference, Aberystwyth University, April, 2007.
2005
‘The ‘Middlebrow’ in Midsomer: Midsomer Murders and Quality Television’, MeCCSA Postgraduate Conference, Cardiff University, June 2005.
Dr Rebecca Williams 