Conference 2019

Keynote Speakers

Prof. P.David Marshall, Deakin University, Melbourne.

Prof. Anne Jerslev, University of Copenhagen.

Dr. Helena Bassil-Morozow, Glasgow Caledonian University

Dr. David Giles, University of Winchester.

Deadline for individual and panel abstracts: December 6th 2018

 Persona Studies – a truly interdisciplinary field.

Persona Studies – the examination of how the private and public self intersect to produce differing versions of identity – is a growing area of research. It incorporates, amongst others, studies of celebrity and other public figures such as politicians, professional persona across various fields, examinations of both real and fictional figures from history and in literature, the representation of persona by artists and in music and the influences of psychoanalysis, sociology and psychology. As the political, economic and social landscape of Western capitalist democracies shift, there has never been a more significant time to consider the presentation and publicisation of the self and its socio-economic and cultural impacts.

Within and beyond mediatised spaces, the performance of persona has shaped how we understand ourselves and our place in the world. If we consider strategies and practices of self-performance and complex representations across and beyond media spaces, then persona is constantly negotiated by audiences and through every day interactions. In real life and online, multifaceted versions of self-identity emerge according to platform, place and position.

Newcastle University and the Persona Studies journal are hosting the inaugural International Persona Studies conference which will consider questions relating to these processes: what is persona and persona studies? How do public figures negotiate performances of their self-identity and their status in media spaces? What role to rituals, rules and rights play in persona performance? What role do audiences play in shaping persona? What set of communicative practices govern different kinds of persona? How do our social and psychological experiences shape our persona? What is the impact of persona on arts, culture, music or science?

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Persona as phenomenon • Political persona • Persona and representation • Persona and psychoanalysis • Celebrity persona • Networked persona •Journalism and persona • social media and persona • Historical persona • Literary persona • Fictional persona •Transgression, crime and persona • Professional persona • Queer persona • Business and corporate persona • Persona and fluidity • Persona and cinema • Persona and reality-TV  • Persona and audience • The parameters of persona • Persona and gender class, race, ethnicity • Marketing and persona • Persona and public relations • Exhibition and persona  • Persona and fandom • Persona, music and musicianship • Science and persona • The phenomenology of persona • leadership and persona.