Education – Page 172 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Who is the Manliest Companion on Doctor Who? from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video] (2:13)

Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions“ at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.

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Transcript:

I didn’t pick, because I’m not going to pick for you. You’ve got to pick for yourself. These are the messages that we’re being sent by this piece o popular culture. So, how we’re relating to those messages is the question. What I did do was look into who the show named as the most manly man and they did in The Day of the Doctor. They made a choice. They mentioned the man that all men should live up to. Anyone remember who it was? It’s at the very end of The Day of the Doctor. And it’s John Hurt talking. He’s made that choice, right, in the end. Made the cool choice not to bow everybody up. I thought that was brilliant writing. Who knew you could do that? Literally, re-wrote the last 10 years of the series with that one choice. Who did he pick as the manliest man ever to appear on Doctor Who? A Woman! A modern women is the equal to any man. That’s a modern an talking. That’s a modern man thinking about people as complete and total equals and, to me, that was so cool when I stumbled on that. Didn’t even occur to me. Now, Clara’s not necessarily my favorite character, but in this particular episode she helped a decision be made that saved the world. She’s the one who told him he didn’t have to drop the bomb. That’s a huge, manly, choice. She influenced the lives of millions by standing up and saying that. So, I think that was hilarious and wonderful which brings us back to that first quote. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” Right now! Today! Which means be a good family man. There you have it. Thank you so much for coming.

A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.

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News: Professors Give American Women Their Own Historic Focus | PolyCentric

It is always fun to work with student journalists – this is a story written by one from CalPoly Pomona about the 4 volume encyclopedia my colleague Peg Lamphier and I co-edited for ABC-CLIO over the last three years – it is now available for pre-order by high school and college libraries (and any individuals who like to college encyclopedias or books about cool women!)

Professors Give American Women Their Own Historic Focus | PolyCentric | Carly Owens

There’s a proverb that says “women hold up half the sky,” a centuries-old homage to the vital role women play.

Cal Poly Pomona Professors Rosanne Welch and Peg Lamphier have compiled those historic feats in a new encyclopedia titled “Women in American History.”

The four-volume set covers pre-colonial history to modern-day feminism.

“It’s women in American history and culture, so we thought about what kind of women don’t normally get into encyclopedias to ensure there was a great diversity expressed,” says Welch, who holds a doctorate in American social history of the 21st century.

Some women who are included in the compilation are ones people may not expect to see in an encyclopedia.

“Lady Gaga hasn’t made many encyclopedias, but her philanthropy and influence on media earned her a place in the book,” Welch says.

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Who is the Manliest Man on Doctor Who? from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video] (1:30)

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Transcript:

That leaves me with wondering, of all The Doctors who is the manliest man? I think it’s an interesting thing to ponder. We’re critically thinking about our media and what messages is our media sending us. Who do we bond with? Who do we think’s the best? I’ll tell you. None of them. Why can’t any of them be the manliest man? They aren’t men. They’re aren’t human. They’re Timelords. None of them can be the manliest man. All right. They’re all Timelords. However, I’m very interested in the actual men who have appeared on the show. So from that group. who do we think defines masculinity in the modern world best?

Student: “Is it Rory?

Ooo, why?

Student: “Because he’s a family man”

He does it all! He’s a family man, but he’s also a warrior and a protector and he’s a good dad to both the baby and to the grownup River, who he didn’t get a chance to know. Imagine – that’s like an adoption story, where you meet your child when they’re a grownup and how do you make a relationship with someone who you didn’t share any time with. You’ve got to start from scratch and that’s exactly what he has to do with River Song. It’s a very modern story. In the days before, when you never opened adoption paperwork and you couldn’t know that. So, I think that Rory is a very modern guy. And a very manly man. He was good pirate, too. When he had to be.

A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.

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Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as Father Figure 2 from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video] (1:35)

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Transcript:

We learn that he has a daughter. So in the modern Who, the military person is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, his daughter. So. she’s inherited her father’s job, if you will. She’s a science officer more than a military officer with UNIT, which is the group that takes care of all of that. So, we meet Kate and when we get to Death in Heaven the problem is all the corpses have been turned into Cybermen and their all rising out of the cemetery and, at a certain point, we lose Kate — they toss her out of an airplane, so we know she’s dead, right? Because she hit the ground, splat, she’s dead. Except among all the corpses we’ve been reminded is her father who has been turned into a Cyberman and when we go to that point in the episode we find out that she’s still walking around the cemetery. She hasn’t been harmed, because she never went splat. He caught her and brought her to the ground safely. He protected his child all the way to the end and then he went up to heaven with Danny. Danny pulled all the Cybermen out and it’s The Doctor — never salutes because he doesn’t like the military — but for this act — the act of saving his child, he’s going to salute and I think that speaks to what The Doctor thinks about what makes a man a man. And again, it’s all tied into being part of a family.

A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.

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Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks on “How Star Wars In Influenced Movie Themes, Female Characters, Fandom & Fan Fiction” – Tuesday, April 12 – Noon – Cal Poly Pomona

Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks on “How Star Wars In Influenced Movie Themes, Female Characters, Fandom & Fan Fiction” – Tuesday, April 12 – Noon – Cal Poly Pomona

(DOWNLOAD PDF FLYER)

The University Library celebrates National Library Week with

Star Wars Saga

“How Star Wars In Influenced Movie Themes, Female Characters, Fandom & Fan Fiction”

Tuesday, April 12 – Noon

Cal Poly Pomona University Library

Special Events Room (4th Floor)

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Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as Father Figure from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video] (1:07)

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Transcript:

We’ll go back in history to one character I don’t think we give enough attention to, and that’s Lethbridge-Stewart, who arrives in the Jon Pertwee era as a military dude, so he’s a warrior from that period and that’s largely what we see him do for a long time. Again, we’re in the 70s now, so we’re not thinking about dads as an important role for men. But, as we go through time and the show stays on the air, guess what? He grows older, you know, because time flies and actors are actual humans and he appears on The Sarah Jane Adventures here as Lethbridge-Stewart so he still exists in her time period. He’s a grandfatherly type and he’s going to help her with some adventures. Now, because he’s a real human being, he passed away. By the time we got to Capaldi’s episodes — and now here I’m in Death in Heaven — he has passed away and so this is a portrait. We have to be reminded of his existence and his character in case you’ve never seen the show before, because we’re going to move to the ending place in this episode where he does the most fatherly, heroic thing.

A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.

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TEDxCPP Features Two CEIS Professors via Cal Poly Pomona Web Site

The Cal Poly Pomona Web Site has a feature article today on the two College of Education and Integrative Studies professors (including myself) who will be presenting at this week’s TEDxCPP. — Rosanne

Two professors from the College of Education & Integrative Studies will explore persistent stigmas in society at the second TEDxCPP.

Shayda Kafai and Roseanne Welch will be among eight speakers who will discuss topics ranging from sex to education to gender to religion on Thursday, April 7, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Kellogg West. The theme of this year’s TEDxCPP is “The Ripple Effect.”

As a lecturer in the ethnic and women’s studies department by day and a writer by night, Kafai seeks to spread awareness of the oppression caused by words and phrases used to describe people with mental health disabilities.

Kafai aims to change perspectives on mental health stigmas in her speech titled “The Language of Madness.”

“I am going to be exploring the stigmatic ways we socially frame psychiatric disabilities,” Kafai says. “Through the use of personal narrative, I will share reasons why we must collectively unlearn totalizing language.”

Welch has taken her writing and professional experiences from mainstream television to the classroom by teaching humanities in the interdisciplinary general education department. She holds a doctorate in American social history of the 21st century.

Welch’s speech, titled “The Importance of Having a Female Voice in the Writer’s Room,” will address issues with “othering,” which occurs when one group takes another group’s differences and uses that against them.

“Based on my previous career as a television writer, I’ll be speaking about moments when new perspectives in the writer’s room can help influence thousands of viewers,” Welch says.

Kafai and Welch have a common goal: broadening perspectives on stigmas that persist in society.

To learn more about these speakers and to get tickets, visit the TEDxCPP website.

Danny Pink and Fatherhood Part 2 from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video Clip] (1:10)

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Transcript:

…and then what happens, God Forbid. You did realize there would be spoilers. Right? I assume people have seen these episodes. God Forbid, he is turned into a Cyberman, too and this so awful, so awful. But. He is a warrior and he’s able to do a thing that will save the family around him — the people of Earth, right?…by beating the Cybermen by getting all the other Cybermen to follow him up. he loses Clara, which is terrible, but, being the show, he gets that second chance to come back from the afterlife and he doesn’t take it, because there’s only one chance to come back and instead he gives it to little Afghan boy that he killed by accident, when he was at war. So, he gives up his happiness and his chance essentially at a resurrection to give it to the child whose chance he took away and he sends that child back into the world so he can start again. Again, if that isn’t the pseudo-father to that child than I don’t know who is.

A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.

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Out of the Research Vault: Micky Dolenz & Peter Tork on Nightwatch – 1986

Since Micky and Peter are conducting this current tour alone, this 1986 episode of Nightwatch, hosted by Charlie Rose, is quite fun to watch as it only involves the two of them.

Micky discusses “Why now?” for their 20th anniversary tour in 1986 – and pins it all on the success of the premiere of the television show and the new generation introduced to it by MTV’s “Pleasant Valley” Marathon. Peter discusses why the show worked – citing things I cover in the book about how The Monkees were originally considered dangerous (due to their long hair and connection to the counter-culture). He also mentions how the fan base went from mostly female to nearly 60/40 female/male. Then Micky discusses his directing career in England and how hard it was to leave it behind for this one summer – that he had no idea how long this one anniversary tour would last!

from The Monkees Live Almanac

The video is shaky but fun to watch because they are so deeply complimentary to each other’s talents, they talk about the ‘patrimony’ of the series in how the money made by the producers funded Five Easy Pieces and the new musical-variety version of the show they hoped to do in the third season that lead to the cancellation.

Previously in Out of Research Vault:

The Monkees In Melbourne, Australia 1968 [Video]

Danny Pink and Fatherhood from How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity [Video Clip] (0:49)

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Transcript:

Now we go back to Danny Pink. Danny we don’t get a chance to see do the whole Dad thing, but we see a few things. First of all, what’s his job when he’s not being a soldier? He’s a teacher. So, we define again teacher as a gendered kid of job. We generally see women int he education field. Especially when it’s in middle school, elementary school, a few more guys in high school, but largely we see that as a female job, because it’s about nurturing a younger generation of people. So, as a teacher we see him protective of the children in his care. He is their pseudo-father when they are at school with him and I think that’s really important. That’s how Danny is defined for us. We see him first as this and then we hear about the warrior — oh yeah, he was a soldier. So his first definition is this.

A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.

Follow Dr. Rosanne Welch on the Web and via social media at:

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