Star Wars, Syria, and Our Civil War: Bearing Witness to Atrocity and Suffering

Bear with me on this one. The American Civil War will make it into this conversation, but I have a lot of other things to talk about first. And I should also warn: minor spoilers ahead. I was moved to silence after seeing Rogue One, the first spin-off film of the Star Wars franchise. Even now, tears creep into my eyes as I remember how it shook me. I had heard reviews claiming that it was the first Star Wars movie to put the cost of war at the center of the narrative. I hadn’t expected it to be so true. Rogue One is far from a perfect movie, but it boldly presents many powerful themes that move it beyond the traditional scope of the Star Wars universe. It deals not only with acts of war, but with their human consequences. [excerpt

Star Wars Display

May The 4th Be With You! Star Wars Day is an unofficial secular holiday in May celebrating the Star Wars franchise. Fans of the films, print series, and Star Wars in popular culture celebrate Star Wars Day in a variety of ways; we recommend celebrating with a book from our Star Wars display in Cooper Library

Observations

Observations on qualia, death, free will, why there is something rather than nothing, and the Star Trek vs. the Star Wars debate

we're bad history

on apocalypse, shakespeare, Clarke's Third Law, the corporate take-over of Star Wars and els

How to maintain and expand the star wars film franchise in Indonesia

The objectives of this research are to find out the primary reasons Indonesian customers watch the movies. To advise a proper marketing strategy for future Star Wars films so the revenue of the film franchise will grow optimally. In other words, to increase the number of Star Wars films audience. To find out the optimal promotional channel for the Star Wars film franchise to expand its customer base in Indonesia. To develop an implementation plan for the proposed marketing strategy. This research used primary and secondary data. The primary data are from quantitative and qualitative research, whereas the secondary data are from various internet sources. The conclusion shows that the future of the Star Wars film franchise is deeply connected and dependent on its fanbase due to the nature of the Star Wars brand embedding nostalgia within its fans, young and old. Time and time again, the fans have been responsible for some of the best marketing ploys in the industry, like Star Wars Day, “May the fourth be with you,” which was organically created by the fans to appreciate and celebrate the Star Wars films. Star Wars fans continue to create demands for Star Wars films and merchandise. They also organically create new fans by spreading their joy and hobby in Star Wars. Indonesian customers watch movies to be entertained but a major reason is so that they are up to date with the current trend

Hokey Religions: Star Wars and Star Trek in the Age of Reboots

Disney’s recent “decanonization” of the decades-old Star Wars “Expanded Universe” in preparation for the release of The Force Awakens once again raises the question of the triangular relationship between the corporate ownership of intellectual property, the mainstream audience to whom the blockbuster films are addressed, and the much smaller hardcore fanbase whose loyalty sustains a franchise during its lean years. Considering fandom investment in the processes of world-building and continuity construction across the landscape of SF media forms, this article will focus specifically on two key franchises in mainstream SF, each in its own way paradigmatic of the “merely” science fictional, and each of which has recently undertaken a radical revision of its “expanded universe”: Star Wars and Star Trek. A concluding discussion extends these observations to other two franchises: Superman comics and the long-running British television series Doctor Who

Fans feeling a disturbance in the Force. Star Wars and the power of paratexts

Ever since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, the Star Wars franchise has been widely praised for its updated take on and inclusion of diversity (extending in particular to women), having moved away from its image as purely a boys’ club to include everyone. While this may seem true at first glance if we regard the blockbuster films of the Star Wars franchise, such a sentiment proves to be more problematic when we consider the merchandise accompanying the films. This article starts by reading the gender diversity of the Star Wars franchise as “plastic representation” (Warner 2017), branching out to include Star Wars merchandise as paratexts (Genette 1997, Gray 2010, Scott, 2017). Reading Star Wars toys, action figures and play sets as culturally significant objects and markers of fan identity (Geraghtly 2014), I argue that these paratexts serve to bolster gendered franchising and to work as “fanagagement” (Hills 2010) to promote certain types of fan engagement in Star Wars, while at the same time policing others

Rey-ifying a New Heroine: Interrogating the Curriculum of Femininity in Star Wars Films

The Star Wars film trilogies are a cross-generational phenomenon. Due to its powerful and pervasive nature, the messages within Star War’s films must be problematized. As a cultural artifact, Star Wars was used to explore the representations of women across time and three generations. Using a conceptual framework based on cultural curriculum studies and feminist theory, this study explored the significance of Star Wars as gender text by interrogating the representations of women in the Star Wars film saga and what these representations teach about gender and femininity. By focusing on the themes of agency, empowerment, and identity, this work investigated the (un)reached potential of the representations of women in Star Wars films to serve as a tool for social change. It shows how Star Wars films hold significance for the identity formation of young women, broader goals for social justice, cultural curriculum studies, and the field of education. Our current state of education and broader society is implicated by this research as they must be willing to embrace the changing perceptions and understandings of gender norms and femininity

STEMNET

At a presentation for the Cambridge Science Festival, Jenny talked to a group of Year 9 students about how themes that had been futuristic in famous works of science fiction, such as Star Wars and Star Trek, are now becoming reality. Jenny is also working on a schools project using microelectronics embedded in wallpaper or artwork