All events, except where noted, take place in the Guild Lounge, Scott Hall, 601 University Place, Evanston, IL 60201

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5

 12:00 Check-in, Guild Lounge

 12:30-2 Bette Davis, the Long View

Session chair: Miriam Petty, Northwestern University

Shannon Wong Lerner, University of California, Davis

“Bette Davis and Lindsay Anderson’s Whales of August: Aged Divadom, Free Cinema, and Human Technicity”

Marcie Bianco, Writer

“A Tale of Two Bettes: Or, Why Women Need to Tell Stories About Women”

Pamela Robertson-Wojcik, University of Notre Dame

“The ABCs of Bette Davis”

2-2:15  Break

2:15-3:45 Bette Davis in The Popular Press

Session chair: Katie Dyson, Loyola University Chicago

 Nora Gilbert, University of North Texas

“’Women with Careers Should be Shot!’: Bette Davis and the ‘Unwomaning’ Threat of Hollywood Stardom”

Flavia Soubiran, University of Montreal

“The Persona of Bette Davis in 30s-40s Popular Culture: Physical Transformations and Scandals in the Press”

Steven Cohan, Syracuse University

“’Got Gossip?’: 1962 Redux and the Making of Baby Jane”

4-5 Break

 5-7      Keynote Lecture by Martin Shingler, University of Sunderland, UK

            Hagstrum Room, University Hall 215

 “From Heartbreaking Sincerity to Desperate Self-Parody: The Critical Reception of Bette Davis’ Acting, 1935-1949″

 

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6

 10:30 Check-in, coffee/tea/bagels, Guild Lounge

11-12:30  Bette Davis Collaborates

Session chair: Carla Marcantonio, Loyola Marymount University

 Scott Balcerzak, Northern Illinois University

“Actresses, Librarians, and ‘Pinko Talk’: Bette Davis and Kim Hunter in Storm Center”

Donna Campbell, Washington State University

“Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis: Challenging Rural Nostalgia in Edna Ferber’s So Big”

Cynthia Baron, Bowling Green State University

“Bette Davis and Margaret Lindsay in Jezebel: Artistry Creates Modern Women”

12:30-2 Lunch

 2-3:30 Bette Davis’ Racial Legacy

Session chair: Paula J. Massood, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Briallen Hopper, Queens College, CUNY

“Baldwin, Bette, and Aspirational White Cruelty”

Nick Davis, Northwestern University

“The Funnyhouse of a Diva: Adrienne Kennedy’s Experimental Portraits of Bette Davis”

Julia Stern, Northwestern University

“Racist Eyeballing: The Shattered White Gaze in In This Our Life”

3:30 Break

 4-5:00          Kathryn Sermak, author of MISS D AND ME: Life with the Inimitable Bette Davis, in conversation with Marcie Bianco 

6-8:30            Screening of Old Acquaintance (1943), followed by panel discussion*

Panelists: Cynthia Baron, Bowling Green State University, Melissa Bradshaw, Loyola University Chicago, and Martin Shingler, University of Sunderland

 EVANSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, 1703 Orrington Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201

*registration not required for the film screening

 

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All About Bette is sponsored by the Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University Department of English, Department of Radio/Television/Film, and the programs in Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies and the Loyola University Chicago College of Arts and Sciences and Department of English.