‘Stars and Screen’
Cinema and Media History Virtual Symposium
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Schedule | Program
** All times are US Eastern Time EDT **
10 am - 11 am, Session 1
Panel 1A - Classical and Conglomerate Hollywood
Chair, Brian Neve, University of the West of England
Thomas Schatz, University of Texas at Austin
“Power Surge: Conglomerate Hollywood”
Matthew Bernstein, Emory University
“‘On the border-line’: Midnight (1939), the PCA and the ‘Cinderella Story’”
Panel 1B - Global Stars and Screen
Chair, Amanda Konkle, Georgia Southern University
Amanda Konkle, Georgia Southern University
“Imagining the Hollywood Icon on the Small Screen: Smash (2012-2013, NBC) and Classical Hollywood Lore”
Weixu Xu, Chongqing University
“Bare Life under Noir: The Sensual Realism of Black Snow”
Yuhui Wang, City University of Hong Kong
“Reframing the Star: Hollywood Comics and Visual Agency in Republican China (1930s-1940s)”
Tanya Joy, CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
“Narrative Gravity and Male Stardom: Female Agency in the Shadow of the Megastar”
11 am - 12 pm, Session 2
Panel 2A - Screening the Archive
Chair, Eric Hoyt, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Gabriel Paletz, Prague Film School
“A Star of Ongoing Discoveries: Orson Welles and the Archives”
Eric Hoyt, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“United Artists Contract Registers, 1919-1951: Microfilmed, Scanned, Modeled, and Opened for Analysis”
Nam Huh, Loughborough University
“Immersive Counter-Archives: VR, Memory, and Screen Visibility”
Panel 2B - Stars and Screen Around the World
Chair, Olivia Cosentino, University of South Florida
Amy Fletcher, Independent Scholar/University of Canterbury
“Is Any Star Really Happy: Olive Borden as Hollywood Cautionary Tale”
Alexandra Kukulina, Amherst College
“The Overlooked Apparatus: Kracauer’s Institutional Blindspot in Weimar Film Historiography”
Ali Darvish, Independent Researcher
“Integrating the Star System into the Cultural Architecture of Film Festivals: Tetsuya Bessho and the Short Shorts Film Festival”
Olivia Cosentino, University of South Florida
“Angélica Maria: Youth Stardom, Emotion, and Modernity in 1960s Mexico”
12 pm - 1 pm, Session 3
Panel 3A - Screening Noir Stars and Music
Chair, Peter Kunze, Tulane University
Peter Kunze, Tulane University
“Scripting a Second Act: Gloria Swanson’s Unproduced Broadway Musical of Sunset Boulevard”
Chad Newsom, Savannah College of Art and Design
“Jitterbug Fatale: Women, Swing, and Classical Hollywood Cinema”
Kate Laity, Independent Scholar
“Haunted: Where Gothic Bleeds into Noir”
Sheri Chinen Biesen, Rowan University
“Women ‘Stars’ of Film Noir: On-Screen and Behind-the-Scenes in Hollywood”
Panel 3B - Screening Stardom
Chair, Colleen Montgomery, Rowan University
Natasha Farrell, Memorial University
“Star-Dust in Hollywood”
Sarah Byrne, Independent Researcher
“Dress like a star: Hollywood Patterns and aspirational home sewing”
Blue Profitt, Georgia College & State University
“‘You’ll look back and you won’t believe’: Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, and Retro Star Texts”
1 pm - 2 pm, Session 4
Panel 4A - Hollywood Industry and Mythmaking: Constructing/Promoting Stars and Defending the Screen
Chair, Katherine Fusco, University of Nevada, Reno
Alix Rogé, Université Catholique de Lille, France
“From John Wayne to Jack Twist: Hollywood’s Reinterpretations and Rewritings of the Myth of the Cowboy and the American Values he Embodies”
Katherine Fusco, University of Nevada, Reno
“Not Resting on His Laurels and Hardys: Marketing Hal Roach’s Comediennes”
Denise Mok, University of Toronto
“Quiet Performances of Grief, Renunciation, and Spiritual Solace: Bette Davis in Winter Meeting (1948)”
Paul Monticone, Rowan University
“Haysites Take the Stand: Private-Plaintiff Antitrust Suits & the Hollywood Trust”
Panel 4B - Roundtable - Unknown Stars of History: Making the Underdog Shine in Disney’s Newsies
Chair, Emily Hamilton-Honey, SUNY Canton
Christine Caccipuoti, SUNY Farmingdale
Jeanine Thomas, University of Georgia
Baden Gaeke-Franz, University of Winnipeg
Justine Debelius, Johns Hopkins University
2 pm - 3 pm, Session 5
Panel 5A - Recreating Stars On Screens
Chair, Walter Metz, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Dora Núñez, American University
“TikTok Stardom in the Afterlife: Gregory Peck in the Social Media Age”
Mary Arnatt, York University
“Scream Queens and Women’s Media Labor in 1980s-90s Horror Cinema”
Jordan Brower, University of Kentucky
“Margot’s Meta-Exploitation; or, ‘I, Tonya,’ #MeToo”
Walter Metz, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
“Wither Hollywood’s Stars and Screens?”
Panel 5B - Stars On Screen and Overseas
Chair, Vernon Shetley, Wellesley College
Vernon Shetley, Wellesley College
“The Femme Fatale in the 21st Century”
Ailin Zhou, University of California, Santa Cruz
“Chinatown Beauty, Globally Staged: Miss Chinatown USA Beauty Pageant, Transnational Female Stardom, and the Making of Chinese American Womanhood across the Pacific”
Nora Gilbert, University of North Texas
“Tradwives of the Silver Screen”
Peter Piatkowski, Independent Scholar
“Diane Keaton: Construction of a Female Cinematic Clown”
3 pm - 4 pm, Session 6
Panel 6A - Slippery Films: Historical Reception, Hollywood Genres, and the Variability of Meaning
Chair, Emily Carman, Chapman University
Julie Grossman, Le Moyne College
“‘Still Waters Run Deep’: Performance and Competing Spectator Positions in Joan Fontaine’s Hollywood Stardom”
Will Scheibel, Syracuse University
“Invasion of the Horror Hosts: Universal Monster Movies on 1950s Television”
Emily Carman, Chapman University
“Misfit Reception?: The Release of The Misfits at home and abroad, in 1961”
Kristen Hatch, University of California, Irvine
“‘It’s History You’ll Be Writing’: Bugsy Malone (1976) and the Affective History of 1930s Hollywood”
Panel 6B - Reimagining Stars On Screen
Chair, Joseph Bierman, Rowan University
Eric Pitz, University of California, Los Angeles
“Betty Who? The Production of Betty Boop’s Racial and Ethnic Ambiguity”
Daniel Moreno, Independent Scholar
“So long, Folks? Recreating the Hollywood of the Animated Toon Star”
Darren Paltrowitz, Freeport Memorial Library
“From Underestimated Comic to Transmedia Powerhouse: The Evolution of Adam Sandler’s Stardom Across Film, Production and Streaming”
Scott Ennis, Independent Scholar
“Cinematic Dialogue as Method: Hildegard of Bingen Meets Humphrey Bogart”
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** If you would like to attend Stars & Screen, you can RSVP here to register:
https://forms.gle/2qNvaTg6Zu1Eb4rFA
