Introduction

Abstract

Welcome, dear readers, to Celebrity Forum. This section primarily exists as a space for dialogue and debate about the meaning of celebrity and how it may be studied. Of course, this is true of the journal as a whole, so what is different here?

Primarily, we want this section to be dynamic. The short pieces in Celebrity Forum (500–1500 words) are designed for this: not a thesis or diatribe on celebrity, but ‘think pieces’. The forum will seek to elicit responses that help scholars in the field think about current celebrity events, historical antecedents to these, the critical paradigms in play, how to do ‘celebrity studies’ and most importantly what it means to do celebrity studies. Our field is, after all, emergent – our star is yet to be fully born – and yet we should be critically aware of the discourses, including our own, that will constitute it.

We are acutely aware that the pressures of national research assessment frameworks, such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom, the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) in Australia and the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) in New Zealand, can make us very wary of publishing short pieces such as those called for here. Yet this can be contradictory to some of the reasons why we joined the academy and how a field is advanced: that is, through the enjoyment of intellectual curiosity, the possibilities that come from engaging with ideas, dialogue, debate, exchange. Certainly if we all wait for working up our ideas into their ‘final’ form (is there ever a perfect sentence, let alone article/book?) or for the endless waiting-lists that go with some journal submissions, such debate will be irrevocably stifled.

This is not to say we will accept anything in this section! The quality of the editorial and advisory board attests to the aims of the journal and the stature of debate we expect to take place here. Rather, within the confines of academic publishing, we will accept papers as close to publication dates as possible to allow authors to think about why ‘everyone's talking about…’ or ‘what's “hot” in celebrity culture’ right now, or why an historical antecedent or example is particularly ripe for reflection in the present moment. Celebrity Forum is therefore a ‘public sphere’ for the celebrity studies citizenry, if you will, but one in which the radical critical potential of celebrity – its unruliness and incoherence – is embraced, discussed and analysed from a variety of perspectives; for example, I look forward to publishing the first piece on ‘low’ cultural forms such as TMZ, heat’s ‘what's hot’, Popbitch and Holy Moly (if ‘celebs’ are not low enough!).

So, what are we looking for?

The three pieces here set out some of the key ways in which Celebrity Forum seeks to elicit debate. Lisa Kelly's piece on the recent ‘Sachsgate’ affair engages with an example of a current media event that highlights the role celebrities and celebrity culture plays in contemporary media and cultural life. In the next edition of Forum, our special issue on Michael Jackson takes a similar approach using a specific event to explore an iconic figure in celebrity culture. In this issue, Milly Williamson's essay analyses the way discourses of gender and class construct ‘ordinary celebrity’ to unpick an emergent trend evident in the treatment of celebrity in the popular press. Finally, Douglas Kellner's article uses a recent publication in the field of celebrity studies as a launch-pad for considering how we might take concepts therein further, challenging and developing them as we go. These examples are not exhaustive of the kinds of articles we'd like to see published in this section but they all, in different ways, emphasise the dialogue we want to cultivate here.

We encourage submissions primarily in two forms: 1000–1500 words (including notes): ‘think pieces’, including case studies, which should be provocative and open-ended, designed to prompt exchange and debate. Alternatively, we invite 500–1000-word (including notes) submissions of comments and views on previous articles published within either the main section of the journal or Celebrity Forum. Above all, Celebrity Forum is designed to be dialogical and primarily engaged with cutting edge developments in celebrity and its study.

We look forward to hearing from you, and hope you enjoy reading issue 1.