A new weekly lecture series exploring the diverse facets and features of popular culture begins at the beginning of next year. Come and hear about your favourite novel, TV series, movie or comic from academic speakers from across the University.

Lectures will take place at 5.30pm every Wednesday — starting on Wednesday 4 February 2015 — in B13, Physics Building, University Park.

For more information visit the series website.

“It’s a trope!” Star Wars and/in translation
Pierre Alexis Mevel, Department of French and Francophone Studies
Wednesday 4 February

A state of play: representing politics in popular fiction
Stephen Fielding, School of Politics and International Relations
Wednesday 11 February

Slam poetry, verbal combat and the ‘death of art’ debate
Timo Schrader, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
Wednesday 18 February

“I need fishfingers and custard”: the irruption and suppression of vegan ethics in Doctor Who
Kate Stewart, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Matthew Cole, The Open University
Wednesday 25 February

Zombie genomics; or the didactic dead
Sean May, School of Biosciences
Wednesday 4 March

“Do you like scary movies?” Defining the anatomy of cinematic suspense and viewer anticipatory patterns
Keith Bound, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
Wednesday 11 March

Selling The Hunger Games: the digital infrastructure of blockbuster promotion
Catherine Johnson, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
Wednesday 18 March

“This is Sparta!” Representing ancient Greece in films and comics
Lynn Fotheringham and Stephen Hodkinson
Wednesday 25 March

Travels in deep time: evolution and extinction in classic Doctor Who
Susannah Lydon, School of Biosciences
Wednesday 29 April

Wyndham Lewis, the thriller and the popular
Nathan Wadell, School of English
Wednesday 6 May