Jane Espenson

(Williamsburg, Va.) The Women’s Studies Program and the Literary and Cultural Studies Program at the College of William and Mary will host a regional conference on “Women, Gender, and Television” April 16 -17 in Tucker Hall. The conference will feature two keynote speakers, Jane Espenson, currently a writer and co-executive producer for WB’s The Gilmore Girls and perhaps best know for her work as writer and co-producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Heather Hendershot, associate professor of media studies at CUNY-Queen’s College.

Espenson has also written for a number of sitcoms, including Ellen. She will speak April 16 at 6 p.m. in the Tucker Theater in Tucker Hall. Hendershot is the author of Saturday Morning Censors: Television Regulation Before the V-Chip (Duke University Press, 1998), and Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2004). She also recently edited a collection titled Nickelodeon Nation: The History, Politics, and Economics of America’s Only TV Channel for Kids (NYU Press, 2003). Hendershot will speak April 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the Tucker Theater.

Conference panels will include scholarly papers from the region’s faculty and students (graduate and undergraduate). The papers explore considerations of sexuality, violence, and race and ethnicity (among other subjects) in cable as well as network television-dramas, sitcoms, reality television, talk shows, soap operas, news shows, and television advertising.

The conference is co-sponsored by the American Studies and Film Studies Programs. Additional support has also been provided by the College of William and Mary Lecture Fund and the Roy R. Charles Center for Honors and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Media planning to cover the conference should please contact Suzanne Seurattan, Office of University Relations (757) 221-1631. All other question may be directed to Jennifer Putzi, jjputz@wm.edu or Leisa Meyer, ldmeye@wm.edu.