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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celebrity Studies | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Studies | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:44:14.068076+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Reception === While the announcement of the journal was met with negative media and academic reception, Celebrity Studies has since given the field institutional legitimacy and has helped raise the prestige of the field. The journal's debut reflects a growing scholarly interest in the discipline and the socio-political uses of fame. Sociologist Robert van Krieken has referred to the journal as a "treasure trove of innovative analyses of celebrity." Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, wrote that the journal "has come to epitomise, if not utterly dominate, the entire academic field with which it shares a name." It is regarded as the preeminent or flagship journal in its field. In 2011, the journal was shortlisted by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) for the Best New Journal award. Bioethicist Andy Miah, who founded the first celebrity culture conference in 2005, was not surprised of the launch of the journal because "celebrities have become a focal point of our value system which warrant our attention." Others were more dismissive of the journal during its launch. Australian public intellectual Germaine Greer opined that the journal would not survive three issues. British author and historian Graham McCann criticized the journal, saying that "academic findings of this sort are at best banal and at worst misleading." Matthew Bell of The Independent wrote that he expected to see the journal produce "plenty of pseudo-academic mumbo jumbo." Holmes and Redmond attributed the largely unfavorable media reaction of their journal to fears of "dumbing down" of higher education. Additionally, the editors believed the negative response can be attributed to the "perception that academia is 'frivolous and populist' because of the apparently 'low-brow' subject of its scholarship." Turner defended the reputation of the journal and the field, arguing it "isn't bullshit, this is stuff that actually is happening now."
=== Conference === Celebrity Studies sponsors an international conference every two years. The conference and the journal draw in a network of international media, film, and television scholars. The biennial conference began in 2012 and took place at Deakin University in Melbourne. In 2014, the conference was held at Royal Holloway, University of London. The conference debated the role of celebrities in society and discussed the impact of Hollywood, celebrity animals, and the influence of celebrity chefs. The 2014 conference was criticized by journalist Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, who considered the argument that celebrities can make information more accessible was "bizarre, if not downright depressing," and opined that "Katy Perry can't our children anything about politics." The third international conference occurred at the University of Amsterdam in June 2016. The subtitle of the conference was "Authenticating Celebrity." Over 200 experts were in attendance, most of whom were from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The conference addressed matters such as digital technology, celebrity politics, and "What makes a celebrity authentic?" At the conference, literary historian Lorraine York et al. presented their work on the Kardashian family. In 2018, the fourth international conference was held in Rome at La Sapienza University. The conference was entitled "Desecrating Celebrity." The fifth international conference was scheduled to take place at the University of Winchester but was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
== Notable studies ==
=== Pippa Middleton's buttocks === In November 2011, Janet McCabe, a scholar from the University of London, published an article in the journal that examined the role of Pippa Middleton's buttocks. McCabe wrote, "The celebrity of the Middleton curves has something important to tell us about celebrating the feminine ideal, which is compelling enough to psychically entangle us and from which we are not entirely able to free ourselves." A later study published in the journal examined Middleton's buttocks through Marxist and Freudian analyses.
=== Climate contrarians === A 2013 article traced the history of "climate contrarians" back to the 1980s. The authors identified "keystone species"—climate contrarians who have oversized voices in the media—and how such individuals "hold the ecosystem of climate denial together." These contrarians frequently label environmentalists as "communist, un-American fanatics" who are "diametrically opposed to prosperity, jobs, and profit," according to the study. The authors argued the "celebritisation of the climate" gives climate contrarians the ability to gain recognition in the public sphere, where their contributions are considered "balanced" in media debates on climate change.
=== Meghan, Duchess of Sussex === A 2018 critique by researchers Laura Clancy and Hannah Yelin published in the journal argued that the British monarchy had 'co-opted' the feminism of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex to enhance their public image. The researchers argued that before marrying Prince Harry, Markle was a vocal advocate for women's rights. According to the researchers, "Markle's activist voice has been either silenced or appropriated by the monarchy." Clancy and Yelin accused the monarchy of using Markle's "celebrity status to "re-legitimise" the Royal Family's male monarchical power." The researchers noted that Markle had quit her acting career and shut down her popular blog and social media accounts. The Royal Palace declined to comment on the study. The Sunday Times wrote about the study under the headline "Meghan accused of dropping feminism like a hot potato". Clancy and Yelin criticized the headline as "problematically inaccurate", and Yelin later appeared on Sky News to explain the study was "not about scrutinising Markle herself and it's certainly not about policing anybody else's feminism." Clancy and Yelin stated they received accusations of sexism and racism and encountered various forms of harassment following the study's publication. They subsequently researched how academics more broadly experience the misrepresentation of their work in the media.