Schedule in Detail + Abstracts

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Thursday 7 July

• ​15.00-17.30 – Registration (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 17.30-20.00 – Welcome to EuroSlayage & Wine Reception – Sponsored by the Kingston University School of Performance and Screen Studies' Popular Culture Research Unit (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)

Friday 8 July

• ​9.00-9.30 – Registration & Refreshments (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 9.30-9.45 – Welcome & Opening Address (KPTK 101)
• 9.45-11.00 – Keynote Speaker – Rebecca Williams, 'Immortal Fandom?: The Post-Object Afterlives of Joss Whedon's Television Shows' (KPTK 101)
• 11:10-12:40 – Parallel Sessions

1 Marvel Universe: Agents of Shield
​(KPTK 402)
Simon Brown, Chair

• Mary Ellen Iatropoulos with Lorna Jowett, ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop: Interrogating Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Part One’
• Lorna Jowett with Mary Ellen Iatropoulos, ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop: Interrogating Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Part Two.’
• Malgorzata Drewniok,  ‘“We need to get it done”: Steve Rogers, Phil Coulson, and the language of leadership’

2 Food and Tea Rituals and Narratives in Whedon
(KPTK 401)
Tamy Burnett, Chair 

• Heather M. Porter, ‘Cuppa Tea, Cuppa Tea or Something Stronger: Images of Tea in the Whedonverse’

• AmiJo Comford,  ‘“I Can’t Eat This Stuff Another Night”: Food and Narrative Identity-Making in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel’

• 12.40-13.40 – Lunch (Provided) (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 13.40-15.10 – Parallel Sessions ​

​4 Marvel Universe: Age of Ultron
(KPTK 402)
Janet K. Halfyard, Chair

• KJ Swanson, ‘“Avenging is your world. Your world is crazy.” Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road as Action Films that Problematize Redemptive Violence’
• Rhonda V. Wilcox, ‘"Every Man Ever Got a Statue": Public Statuary in Whedon's Age of Ultron’
• Kathryn Brenna Wardell, ‘“Fully loaded, safety off.  This here is a recipe for unpleasantness”:  Joss Whedon, John Ford, and the Dark Side of the American Mythos'

5 Whedon and Europe
(KPTK 401)
Sharon Sutherland, Chair

• Charlotte Bosseaux, ‘The essence of being Spike: From Britishness to “un certain je ne sais quoi”’
• Katharina Rein and Anna Grebe, ‘Oxford is "where they make Gileses.” Translations of Europe in the Buffyverse’

6 The Rising Tide: Anti-Colonialism, Social Justice, and Diversity in the Whedonverses
(KPTK 504)
Evan Halyes Gledhill, Chair

• Amy Li, ‘Nobody’s Asian in the Movies, But Now They’re in Marvel: Asian and Asian-American Representation in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

• Rebecca Kumar, ‘“Wanna see my impression of Gandhi?”: Anti-Colonial Possibilities in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
• Kristan Woolford, ‘Social Justice in Science Fiction Storyworlds’

• 15.10-15.25 – Break 
  
• 15:25-16:55 – Parallel Sessions

7 Whedon and Globalisation
(KPTK 401)
Svetlana Seibel, Chair

• Philip Smith, ‘Chinoiserie, Caning and Code-switching; finding Serenity in Singapore’
• Christine Jarvis, ‘Exploring Globalisation: The Public Pedagogy of Joss Whedon’

• Elizabeth L. Rambo, ‘"The mission is what matters--right?": Third-Culture Identity Paradigms in Buffy 7.17 “Lies My Parents Told Me”’

8 Body Politics
(KPTK 402)
Lorna Jowett, Chair

• Tamy Burnett, ‘Humanity, Monstrosity, and Reproductive Rights: Joss Whedon and Feminism’s Most Contentious Topic’

• Bethan Jones, ‘"Advocate of mass murder for fun and profit": Negotiating celebrity political affiliation through a conservative moral framework’
• Molly Brayman, ‘The Morning After: Post-coital Discourse in Joss Whedon’s Film and Television Work’

9 War in the Whedonverses
(KPTK 504)
Kristopher Karl Woofter, Chair

• Michael Goodrum, ‘War, Profit, and Migration in Firefly’

• Craig Franson, ‘“There Are No Strings on Me”: Joss Whedon’s Vision and the Global War on Terror’
• Ensley Guffey, ‘“They’re Trying to Create an Army of Things like You”: Super Soldiers in the Whedonverses’ (Unable to Attend)

• 16.55-17.15 – Tea/Coffee Break ((Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 17:15-18:45 – Parallel Sessions 

10 Posthuman/More than Human: Cyborgs, AI and Brainwashing
(KPTK 402)
David Simmons, Chair

• Bronwen Calvert, ‘“The real deal”: Cyborg Identity and Simulacra in Dollhouse’
• Sherry Ginn, ‘Red Rooms, Conditioning Chairs, and Needles in the Brain: Brainwashing and Memory Manipulation in the Whedonverses’
• Madeline Munterbjorn, ‘Alterity, Ambivalence, and Artificial Intelligence’

11 Masculinity
(KPTK 401)
Eve Bennett, Chair

• Georgina Willms, ‘The Inter-male Relationships of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Daisy Butcher, ‘“Like a Man Possessed”: Masculinity in Crisis in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 6’
• Geraldine Crahay, ‘The Insecure Masculinity of Zealous Civil Servants: The Operative and the Inspector’

12 Empowerment or Empire?: Troubling the Whedon Trope of Fighting the Good Fight (Roundtable)
(KPTK 504)
Samira Nadkarni, Chair

• Samira Nadkarni, Mary Ellen Iatropoulos, Jessica Hautsch

• 7.30 – Conference Dinner (Reservation Required) (Strada, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 1JT)

Saturday 9 July

• 9.00-9.30 – Registration & Refreshments (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 9.30-11.00 – Keynote Speaker – Marcus Recht, 'Undead Masculinities: Visual Gender Constructions of Angel and Spike' (KPTK 101)
• 11:00-12:30 – Parallel Sessions 

13 Trauma and Mental Health
(KPTK 401)
Louise Child, Chair

• Masani McGee, ‘"We Create Our Own Demons": Trauma in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’ (Unable to Attend)
• Alyson Buckman, ‘"What is your childhood trauma?!": Living with Trauma in the Whedonverse’
• Catherine Pugh, ‘Such Pretty Things: Madness in the Whedonverse’

14 Whedon and Science Fiction
(KPTK 402)
Bronwen Calvert, Chair

• Michael Starr ‘“It’s the End of the World. It’s Rather Important Really”: Accelerationist Aesthetics of the Whedonverses’
• Alexandra Garner ‘”Darn your sinister attraction”: Buffybot and the Construction of Humanity’
• Josefine Wälivaara  ‘Deviants in Space. The Cancellation of Firefly as Testament to Shifting Tonalities in Science Fiction’

15 De la Estaca al Martillo: Un Viaje por los universos de Joss Whedon: The first Spanish Academic Book about the Author and His Artistic Career (Roundtable)
(KPTK 504)
Irene Raya Bravo, Chair

• Mar Rubio-Hernández, Irene Raya Bravo, Inmaculada Casas-Delgado, and Cristina Algaba

• 12.30-14.00 – Lunch (Provided) (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building) + Whedon Studies Association Meeting (13.00-14.00, KPTK 101)
• 14:00-15:30 – Parallel Sessions 

16 Up Close and Personal: Episodes under the Microscope
(KPTK 402)
Jim Reynolds, Chair

• Cynthia Burkhead, ‘“I've a feeling we're not in Sunnydale anymore”: The Hollywood Lineage of “Once More with Feeling”’
• Mary Alice  Money, ‘Exploring Firefly's "Heart of Gold"’
• Svetlana Seibel, ‘“There’ll Be Another Song For Me”: The Significance of the Orpheus Myth in Angel’s “Orpheus”’

17 Uploading to the Cortex: Watcher Junior and the Process of Undergraduate Publication (Roundtable)
(KPTK 401)
Meghan K. Winchell, Chair

• Meghan K. Winchell, Jodie Kreider, Cynthea Masson, and Kristopher Karl Woofter

18 Communication, Education and University Fiction
(KPTK 504)
AmiJo Comeford, Chair

• Amy Williams, ‘Interpersonal Communication in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Theories of Self-Disclosure in “Hush” and “Once More With Feeling”’
• Dreama Pritt, ‘Teaching Composition through the Works of Whedon:  Is Joss Really Boss, or Is It _Much Ado About Nothing_?’
• Elizabeth Kate Switaj, ‘How's College?: Considering Buffy Season Four in the Context of University Fiction’

• 15.30-15.50 – Tea/Coffee Break (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 15:50-17:20 – Parallel Sessions

19 The Development of Whedon’s Work in Spain: Reviews and Reception of His Artistic Career
(KPTK 504)
Mary Alice Money, Chair

• Inmaculada Casas-Delgado and Irene Raya Bravo, ‘Spanish Academic Researches about Joss Whedon’s Work’
• Cristina Algaba and J. Lopez Rodriguez, ‘The Critical Reception of Whedon’s Works in Spain’
• Mar Rubio-Hernandez, Victor Hernandez-Santaolalla, and Javier Lozano Delmar, ‘The Spanish Whedonverse: A Study of Whedon’s Fans’ Creations’

20 Whedon and Family On and Off the Screen
(KPTK 402)
Cynthia Burkhead, Chair

• Matthew Pateman, ‘I thought J-Mo would back my play: Dr Horrible and the transitions of Whedons’
• Barbara Maio, ‘Agents of Shield and the question of authorship in Whedon factory’
• Eve Bennett, ‘Choosing the Wrong Family: Radicalisation and Gender in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

21 Fandom and Audiences
​(KPTK 401)
Elizabeth Rambo, Chair

• David Simmons, ‘“The Future’s so Bright and I Owe it All To You”: Considering Negative Capability in relation to Joss Whedon’s Unfinished Oeuvre’
• Alaina Christensen, ‘Opening the Hellmouth: Studying Pop Culture in the Academy’
• Selina Doran, ‘A Shade Darker? Viewers’ Interpretations of Buffy in Season 6 and Understandings of Gender Roles’

• 17.20-17.30 – Break 
  
• 17.30-19.00 – Parallel Sessions

22 Bringing Buffy Back: The Slayer as a Learning Teaching Solution (Roundtable)
​(KPTK 504)
Paula James, Chair

• Paula James, Amanda Potter, Anastasia Bakogianni, and Wendy Maples

23 Generations/History/Place
(KPTK 401)
Mary Ellen Iatropoulos, Chair 

• Sharon Sutherland, Rowan Meredith, Darsey Meredith, ‘Raising Slayers:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer through a Generational Lens’
• Jay Bamber, ‘History as its own character in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel’
• Ian Klein, ‘Welcome to Sunnydale: Out of the Hellmouth and into the Theme Park’

 24 Identity Construction
(KPTK 402)
Josefine Wälivaara

• Michael C. Gilbert and Sofia Gieysztor, ‘Point of View as Identity: Themes of Mindfulness and the Power of the Container in Whedon's Dollhouse’
•  Kathrin Dodenhoeft, ‘Inviting the Other In – Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
•  Gemma Killen, ‘Queering Kinship on BtVS’

Sunday 10 July

• 9.00-9.30 – Registration & Refreshments (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 9.30-10.45 – Featured Speakers – Lewis Call, '"I Adore You . . . But I Need the Other Guy": Black Widow/Hulk as a Whedonesque Relationship of Dominance and Submission' & Stephanie Graves, '"What Other Choice Do We Have?": Agency and Autonomy in the Whedonverses' (KPTK 101)
• 10.45-11.00 – Tea/Coffee Break (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 11:00-12:30 – Parallel Sessions 

25 Teaching the Whedonverses (Roundtable)
(KPTK 402)
James Zborowski, Chair

• James Zborowski and Matthew Pateman

 26  Power and the Paranormal
(KPTK 401)
Michael Starr, Chair

• James Reynolds, ‘The Daimonic Tale and the Re-watch Ritual: Monstrous Duality and Joss Whedon’s New Horror Tradition’
• Christopher Lockett, “Into each generation …”: Fantasy, Prophecy, and Power in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
• Tanya R. Cochran, ‘In Your Eyes in the Audience’s Estimation: Situating Whedon’s Paranormal Romance Within the Larger Body of His Work’

3 (Rescheduled)
​Watching Whedon: A Glimpse into One Family’s Prolific Consumption and Dynamic Discussion of the Whedonverse (A Multi-generational Roundtable)
​(KPTK 504)
Dreama Pritt, Chair

• Dreama Pritt, Bill Pritt, Jack Pritt, Grace Pritt, and Julia Pritt

•  12.30-14.00 – Lunch Break  (Own Arrangements)
  
•  14:00-15:30 – Parallel Sessions 

27 Discursive Surround: Influences and Paratexts
(KPTK 401)
Malgorzata Drewniok, Chair

• Janet K. Halfyard, ‘The Sound of Whedon: the influence of Joss Whedon’s early TV shows on television scoring’
• Steven Wosniack,  ‘Pre, While, and Post Buffy: The Televisual Lineage of the Slayer’
• Bernhard Frena, ‘The Death and Afterlife of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Examining the Cracks between TV, Comic and Fan Fiction’

28 “We Can Kill It for You Wholesale": Militarization and Capitalism in the Whedonverses
(KPTK 401)
Sherry Ginn, Chair

•  Renee St. Louis, ‘Veteran Victor: Dollhouse and the Depiction of Real-World War Surviviors’
• Jessica Hautsch, ‘Blackwater in the Battle Against Evil: The Moral Implications of Slayers as Hired Guns in Buffy Season Nine and Angel and Faith Season Ten’
• Samira Nadkarni, ‘“In a World This Vulnerable”: Tony Stark’s In/Visible Corporate Militarism and Drone Warfare’

29 Heroism and Choices
(KPTK 504)
Matthew Pateman, Chair

• Gert Magnusson, ‘The Superhero Dilemma’
• Andrew Aberdein, ‘Whedonian Trolleyology’
• Evan Hayles Gledhill, ‘An Unsuitable Job for a Woman: “Emotional labour” and Heroism in the Work of Joss Whedon’

• 15.30-15.45 – Tea/Coffee Break (Glass Staff Space, Ground Floor, Knights Park Building)
• 15:45-17:15 – Parallel Panels

30 Gothic and Horror
(KPTK 402)
Simon Brown, Chair

• Elizabeth Gilliland, ‘Not Much with the Damseling: Gothic Heroes, Heroines, Subversions, and Shadows in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
• Kristopher Woofter, ‘Archival Anxiety and the Hysterical Male: Andrew Wells as Gothic (Mock)Documentary “Storyteller” in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
• Stacey Abbott, ‘“Another one for the Fire, Boys”: The Zombie in the Work of Whedon’

 31 Gender Politics/Roles
(KPTK 401)
Elizabeth Kate Switaj, Chair

• Anthony Stepniak, ‘“Woman's Body as Warzone”: The Gender Identity of Drusilla’
• Cyndi DeVito-Ziemer, ‘Excuse Me, But Your Mascara is Running:  How Buffy and Spike Perform Gender’
• Cheyenne Foster and Melanie-Angela Neuilly, ‘The Feminine Mystic: Women as Paranormal Crime Fighters, the Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

•  17.30-18.15 – Whedon Bookers: The Past, Present and Future of Whedon Studies  + Closing Remarks (KPTK 101)
•  Farewell