Keeping up with the Windsors: Celebrity Culture and the British Royal Family

Tickets are free but attendees must be on the guestlist and will need to bring I.D. to be signed into the premises at reception.

Two days before the 20th anniversay of Princess Diana’s death, this event will offer a range of perspectives on the British Royal Family and how they are constructed in the media. From fairytale weddings and hotly anticipated engagements to ‘tampongate’, from photoshoots to show they’re really ‘just like us’ to Nazi fancy dress costumes, from Kate’s Reiss day dresses to the murderous conspiracies around Diana’s death, from the colonial, class and gender politics still embedded in their rituals to the constant dance between privacy and publicity – the peculiar celebrity of the British Royal Family has dominated print, screens, and imaginations, through news, gossip media and dramatisiations. For our round table discussion they offer a rich set of symbols for deconstruction, and a valuable lens for examining audiences, celebrity, and media cultures.

Speakers include:

Organised by the Celebrity Culture Club (https://www.facebook.com/celebrityculture)
The Celebrity Culture Club brings together academics, those working in what can broadly be called ‘the media industry’, and interested members of the public, to discuss the important questions of the day in relation to celebrity culture.

Note, this is a discussion about how the monarchy is constructed in the media and not a debate for or against their continuation or abolishment.