Culture Talk by Anna Zsubori

The English Department is proud to invite you to

a public lecture

by

Anna Zsubori, B.A., M.A., M.Litt., PhD.

University Teacher in Communication and Media
Loughborough University (UK)

The Good, the Bad and the Disney: Tweens’ Negotiation of Gender through the Disney Princess Phenomenon in Anti-gender, Post-socialist, "Illiberal" Hungary

April 13, 2023, 14.20 pm, P201

This interdisciplinary talk, as part of a bigger project, examines Hungarian tweenagers’ negotiation of gender after engaging with diverse scholarly works from several fields – such as communication, cultural, feminist media, film and tweenhood studies – on the one hand, and conducting audience research with Hungarian informants on the other. It does so by investigating the concept of ‘the’ princess, including, but not limited to, Disney Princesses, while offering unique theoretical contributions and discussing the complexities of the academically-overlooked Princess Phenomenon. This talk gives an overview of the links between fairy tales and animation, followed by a brief history on audience research with children. Further, it covers the historical, social, and political context in contemporary Hungary and finally it analyses Hungarian children’s notions of gender by discussing their ideas about ‘the’ princess as a concept.

Anna is a communication, media and social studies scholar specialised in conducting audience research with international child participants, and a university teacher in communication and media. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Leicester under its Graduate Teaching Assistantship Scheme at the School of Media, Communication, and Sociology, and is a published researcher with a monograph under contract, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a media expert with management experience in film distribution. Anna achieved her B.A. in Media Studies and M.A. in Teaching Literature and Grammar in Hungary, and her M.Litt. in Film Studies from the University of Dundee, Scotland