Dr Harriet Fletcher

Courses taught:

• Media and Communication (Undergraduate)
• Film and Media (Undergraduate)

Harriet is an interdisciplinary Media and Cultural Studies scholar with expertise in the study of popular culture, particularly in relation to celebrity, feminism and the Gothic.

[email protected]

Background

Harriet researches the intersections of celebrity and the Gothic in literature, media and popular culture. This began with her PhD thesis ‘Gothic Celebrity: Fame and Immortality From Lord Byron to Lady Gaga’ (Lancaster University 2016-2021), which explored celebrity and the Gothic across multiple media, including literature, portraits, photography, film, television, art and social media. This project forms the basis for her first monograph, Gothic Celebrity, which is currently under contract with Bloomsbury academic.

She is further developing her interests in celebrity and the Gothic through a project that explores the cultural history of the Gothic and horror actress in theatre, film and television, with a focus on themes of performance, aesthetics, stardom and age. She has several forthcoming publications related to this project.

She is also developing her research on gender and celebrity through an interdisciplinary project that explores the representation of the ‘bimbo’ in popular culture. She is interested in mapping a broad cultural history of the bimbo and how this sits alongside contemporary feminist movements and timely reappraisals of women in 1990s and 2000s popular culture. The project involves the study of celebrity culture, film, television, social media and fashion.

Harriet is a freelance film and culture journalist who has published reviews, lists, editorials, interviews and podcasts on various websites. She has also written for The Conversation and provided commentary for British Vogue, The i, The Telegraph, Sputnik International, Heart Radio and ABC Australia.

Research interests

• Celebrity culture
• Gender studies
• Feminism and feminist media studies
• The Gothic
• Horror film and television
• Digital media
• Popular culture
• Fashion Studies
• Ageing

Areas of research supervision

Harriet is open to queries about research supervision in any of her areas of expertise.

Teaching

Harriet currently teaches on the following modules:

• Media, Culture and Power
• Introduction to Television Studies
• Television Genres
• Contemporary Television
• What does it mean to be a feminist?

Qualifications

• PhD English Literature, Lancaster University, 2021
• MA English Literary Studies, Lancaster University, 2015
• BA English, University of Exeter, 2014

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member, International Gothic Association (IGA)
• Member, British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS)
• Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Harriet has authored several articles for non-academic audiences and has been cited in international news publications, including British Vogue, The i, The Telegraph and Sputnik International.

• Author, Harriet Fletcher, ‘Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is a “feminist bimbo” classic – and no, that’s not an oxymoron’, The Conversation, translated into Indonesian, August 2023.
• Author, Harriet Fletcher, ‘Curious Kids: who was the first celebrity?’, The Conversation, translated into Indonesian, March 2023.
• Author, Harriet Fletcher ‘How pink became fashion’s colour of controversy: a brief history’, The Conversation, December 2022.
• Co-author, Harriet Fletcher and Declan Lloyd, ‘Five reasons Andy Warhol is so popular right now’, The Conversation, translated into Spanish, March 2022.
• Author, Harriet Fletcher, ‘Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portraits expose the darker side of the 60s’, The Conversation, reprinted in The Independent, translated into Spanish, April 2022.
• Author, Harriet Fletcher, ‘Framing Britney Spears Reclaims the Bimbo’, The F-Word, June 2021.
• Author, Harriet Fletcher, ‘"Gothic" TV: high-quality modern horror series providing powerful roles for Hollywood’s older women’, The Conversation, reprinted in Metro, October 2020.

Selected recent publications

Fletcher, H. (forthcoming) ‘Byromania: Polidori, fandom and the Romantic vampire’s celebrity origins’, in S. George and B. Hughes (eds) The Legacy of John Polidori: The Romantic Vampyre and its Progeny. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Fletcher, H. (forthcoming) ‘Faded Stars to Leading Ladies: The Ageing Actress and Gothic Television’, in J. Hawkes and A. Stratford (eds) The Gothic Age of Television.

Fletcher, H. (forthcoming) ‘(Re)framing Britney Spears: The Celebrity Bimbo in the #MeToo era’, in J. McIntyre and A. Taylor (eds) The Routledge Companion to Gender and Celebrity.

Fletcher, H. (forthcoming) ‘Taking Back Jennifer’s Body: Megan Fox, #MeToo, and the Complexity of Female Victimhood’ in K. McNally (ed.) Women and Hollywood: Tales of Inequality, Abuse and Resistance in the Dream Factory. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Fletcher. H (2022) ‘The death of the star: celebrity decay and the Gothic portrait in Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych’, Celebrity Studies, pp. 1-14.

Recent presentations and conferences

August 2023: ‘Bimbo Feminism and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023)’, Media and Gender Research Group, University of Leicester, UK (invited talk).

June 2023: ‘(Re)framing Britney Spears: The Celebrity Bimbo, Rape Culture and #MeToo’, Talking Bodies 2023 Conference, University of Chester, UK (conference paper).

June 2023 ‘(Re)framing Britney Spears: The Celebrity Bimbo, Rape Culture and #MeToo’, AHSS Conference 2023, Anglia Ruskin University, UK (conference paper).

March 2023: Roundtable discussion on Feminist Thought with Dr Harriet Fletcher and Professor Tanya Horeck, Philosophy Fest, Anglia Ruskin University, UK (roundtable discussion).

July 2022: ‘Faded Stars to Leading Ladies: The Ageing Actress and Gothic Television’, International Gothic Association Conference: Gothic Interruptions, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (conference paper).

June 2022: ‘Faded Stars to Leading Ladies: The Ageing Actress and Gothic Television’, Crones, Crimes and the Gothic, Falmouth University, UK (conference paper).

May 2021: ‘The Most Magical of Mirrors’: Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Victorian Celebrity Photography’, Romancing the Gothic, online (public lecture).

September 2019: ‘From Lord Byron to Countess Elizabeth: Reimagining the Celebrity Vampire Narrative in American Horror Story: Hotel’, American Horror Story Symposium, University of East Anglia, UK (conference paper).

July 2019: ‘The Death of the Star: The Horror of Celebrity Decay in Andy Warhol’s Art’, International Gothic Association Conference: Gothic Terror, Gothic Horror, Lewis University, Illinois, USA (conference paper).

July 2018: ‘“I'm Ready For My Close-Up”: Television, Ageing, and Abjection in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard’, International Gothic Association Conference: Gothic Hybridities, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (conference paper).

June 2018: ‘“I'm Ready For My Close-Up”: The Horror of Faded Stardom in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard’, International Celebrity Studies Journal Conference: Desecrating Celebrity, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy (conference paper).

June 2018: ‘Celebrity, Death, and the Gothic Body in the Work of Andy Warhol', Death and Celebrity Symposium, University of Portsmouth, UK (conference paper).

July 2017: ‘From Lord Byron to Countess Elizabeth: Reimagining the Celebrity Vampire Narrative in American Horror Story: Hotel’, International Gothic Association Conference: Gothic Traditions and Departures, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Cholula, Mexico (conference paper).

May 2017: ‘Gothicising the Celebrity Body in the Work of Andy Warhol', Reimagining the Gothic: Gothic Spaces, University of Sheffield, UK (conference paper).