Beth Pentney(Ph.D. Student) Ph.D. candidate Beth Pentney, who has already published a handful of articles relating to body modification, will be presenting on the representation of cosmetic surgery in various popular TV programs, thus combining the fields of media and gender studies. Her critical study of this makeover culture is informed by the theory of somatechnics, the inextricable unity of body as culturally intelligible construct and the techniques in and through which bodies are formed and transformed in mediated environments. Recent Publications, Performances or Presentations 1) "'A Comic Turn, Turned Serious:' Humour, Body Modification, and the Natural in Fay Weldon's The Life and Loves of a She Devil." Gender and Laughter: Comic Affirmation and Subversion in Traditional and Modern Media. Ed. Gaby Pailer, Andreas Boh, Stefan Horlacher and Ulrich Scheck. Amsterdam: Rodopi, Forthcoming 2008. |