Events – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Another Wonderful SRN Conference On the Books – Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

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Another Wonderful SRN Conference On the Books

It’s been a minute as we settled in back home after all the lovely things that happened at the latest Screenwriting Research Network conference held at Oxford Brookes University.

Doug and I spent our first week in Europe visiting our Catania cousins, which is always a joy and deserves pages and pages of details – but this is a blog about the conference, so… back to Oxford.

After that great week in Sicily, we flew to Oxford to hang out with another great group of people, SRN colleagues from all across the world – Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Romania — too many places to name. All screenwriting professors and practitioners presenting papers that expanded our curricula, helping us bring the many new things we learn back to our own MFA candidates.

My Australian friend and colleague Rose Ferrell and I won the Best Book award for our Shaping Global Cultures Through Screenwriting: Women Who Write Our Worlds. The presence of several of our chapter authors among the membership (and in attendance at the conference) made that presentation even more enjoyable: Joanne Tindale, Kath Dooley, Armando Fumagalli, Karen Jeynes, Juan Carlos Carillo, to name a few in attendance. The judges of the Book Award had this to say about the book:

“Bringing together an outstanding collection of international scholarship, the volume examines the profound influence of women screenwriters in shaping culture, history, and storytelling across generations and national cinemas. By foregrounding voices that have too often been overlooked, the collection expands the scope of screenwriting studies while offering fresh perspectives on authorship, creativity, and global impact. The judges remarked that the volume is a landmark contribution to the field, distinguished by its scholarly rigor, international breadth, and compelling demonstration of the central role women screenwriters have played in shaping both cinema and culture.”

Then I moderated the Annual General Meeting where we announced other awards, including a Lifetime Award for Ian Macdonald, who founded the SRN originally. He was on hand to receive all the kudos from the crowd who were enjoying the fruits of that idea as it has grown stronger and stronger each year. I can’t wait to gather with all these lovely folks again next year when the SRN conference is hosted in Mexico City at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Universidad Panamericana.

Introducing Clueless at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

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On Saturday, August 8 I had the pleasure of being the guest academic and providing the introduction to a screening of “Clueless” (written by Amy Heckerling) in the newly renovated theatre. of the Autry Museum of the American West.

In my short talk, I covered the comparison between Cher, the lead character of Clueless, and Jane Austen’s Emma, showing how Heckerling’s film is a solid example of the female gaze.

I also touched on how Heckerling embedded her own progressive ideas into her main character, from the fact that her high school was named for abolitionist and Transcendentalist Bronson Alcott to Cher’s comment on immigration: “It does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty.” Pretty forward-thinking for a film made in 1995.

Get “Clueless” on Blu-ray

Emma by Jane Austen

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My Mother Always Told Me Busy People Get Things Done – They Also Have Fun!

I guess it’s a sign I’m involved in a lot of projects since on a recent September weekend when I was:

Giving a presentation on Susan Harris at the Screenwriting Research Network conference at Oxford Brookes University.

I could also have been:

On a panel talking about my book at the Monkees Convention in Connecticut celebrating 60 years of The Monkees TV show

• At the Los Ángeles Silent Film Festival celebrating my book on the female screenwriters of the Silent Era

At a book launch in Prague for Stories of the Holocaust: Art for Healing and Renewal, in which I have a chapter celebrating the writing team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and their work adapting The Diary of Anne Frank into a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and then their Oscar-winning film.

Along the way, I gave email advice to an author for our Women Making History series at Bloomsbury and set up a lunch with another writer for after I returned. And, of course, I graded things online whenever I was sitting somewhere (airport, hotel, cousin’s house).

Why does one work on so many projects? Largely, because not everything comes to fruition, so that means that often more things happen at the same time, and you might as well jump in and enjoy the ride when they do. It was a pretty fun month.

Rosanne presents “Creative Play #8: Emotional Monologues Written By A Few Accomplished Female Television Writers” – Screenwriting Research Network [Video]

I was pleased to be asked to host a session of the Creative Play Working Group of the Screenwriting Research Network (SRN), chaired by Professor Chris Neilan of Edinburgh Napier University.

I had the chance to introduce the attendees to some wonderfully emotional monologues written by a few highly accomplished female television writers, from Susan Harris (on SOAP) to Linda Bloodworth Thomason (on Designing Women) to Maxine Alderton, who wrote a great monologue for the Jodie Whitaker Doctor in her episode “The Haunting of Villa Diadoti”. (Doing a bit of history by showing monologues from TV shows from the 1970s and 80s is one of my goals in our MFA – along with celebrating female screenwriters).

Then I introduced an exercise in writing monologues that involves Thornton Wilder’s Our Town as an inspiration. A few of the attendees shared what they wrote so we could all learn more about how the specificity we bring from our own lives makes our work more universal.

Thanks to Leslie Kreiner for inviting me to do a presentation on Monologues to a conference last year, which created the seed of this exercise. Thanks to Chris for the invitation to share it – and to all the attendees for… attending. Special thanks to those who shared what they wrote to help others see if this is an exercise they would like to incorporate into their teaching.

When Women Write What They Say, They Say So Much More: Powerful Actress-writer-producers Past, Present & Future with Dr. Rosanne Welch, SRN 2025, Adelaide, Australia [Video]

In another example of my love for a good, long, alliterative title, I name this year’s Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) presentation:

“When Women Write What They Say, They Say So Much More: Powerful Actress-writer-producers Past, Present & Future”.

It covers writers like Emma Thompson, who adapted Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, in which she starred as Eleanor, and Gertrude Berg, creator, writer, and star of The Goldbergs, and then everyone from Tina Fey to Issa Rae, to Mindy Kaling to Lena Waithe. This presentation discusses the way women writing their own characters, dialogue, and worlds into existence impacts the audience, the industry, and the way women are seen in society.

Dr. Rosanne Welch To Judge This Year’s Moonshot Initiative Film Challenge

Dr. Welch To Judge 2025 Moonshot Initiative Film Challenge

I’m proud to have been asked to serve as a judge for this year’s Moonshot Initiative Film Challenge, designed to help students “Make a short film in one weekend and meet women and gender-expansive people in every role of production”. It takes place in October 2025, in New York.

Moonshot provides cinema-quality equipment courtesy of their sponsors, production insurance, stipends to submit to film fests and more!

You do have to be a member to apply and membership costs $112 a year. If accepted, it is FREE to participate in the challenge. Applications will be open from August 1-31.

Apply Now

It’s my first time being invited to judge the writing in this challenge, and I’m looking forward to reading some innovative scripts that move me emotionally and have something to say about the world.

“Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women” Panel at the Writers Guild Foundation – Friday, August 8, 2025, 7pm

Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women

During every MFA Residency Workshop I moderate a panel of writers – often proudly including one of our MFA alums – and this August we’re doing it again. Join us on Friday, August 8, 2025 from 7:00 PM 8:30 PM at the Writers Guild Foundation (7000 West 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA, 90048) for:

Unapologetically Herself: Writing Bold and Complex Young Women

We’ll explore how writers develop these strong characters, how to approach sensitive scenes intentionally, and how they navigate nuances of character personalities, behaviors, and motivations.

Panelists include:

Karen Joseph Adcock – Yellowjackets
Beth Appel – The Sex Lives of College Girls
Sahar Jahani – Life and Beth (MFA alum!)
Autumn Joy Jimerson – Forever
Dr. Rosanne Welch – Moderator/Executive Director, Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting

Get tickts for this WGA Panel Discussion

And if you’d like to see some of our previous WGA panels you can find them on our MFA Website

Rosanne speaks as part of Art for Healing and Renewal, Part ar the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History, November 21, 2024, 6pm

On November 21st I’ll be in Jacksonville, Florida on a panel at the MOSH (Museum of Science and History) to discuss a chapter I wrote in the upcoming book Stories Of The Holocaust: Art for Healing and Renewal, edited by Dr. Karen Berman and Dr. Gail Humphries.

I was honored when Dr. Humphries invited me to write the opening reflection to a section in Vol. 2: On Screen and in the Gallery. Then, being me, I asked if they had a chapter on screenwriters Frances and Albert Hackett who adapted The Diary of Anne Frank from book to Pulitzer-Prize-winning Broadway play and then into the film. The editors hadn’t planned such a chapter but it sounded valuable to the collection so they commissioned me to write it. Now I’ll have the chance to tell even more people about the brilliant work of this married team of screenwriters who also gave film fans The Thin Man, Father of the Bride, Easter Parade, and It’s a Wonderful Life.

Joining Dr. Humphries:

Elizabeth Gelman, Senior Director of Arts and Cultural Programming for Creative Pinellas, previous director of The Florida Holocaust Museum (Pinellas County, Florida)

Ruth Gordon, Former social studies teacher in Miami-Dade County and founder/current advisor for Holocaust Impact Theater (Miami, Florida)

Dr. Laurence Sherr, Award-winning composer of international stature, concert producer, and professor of music, Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, Georgia)

Dr. Rosanne Welch, Executive Director of Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Program, author and screenwriter (Los Angeles, California); also author for Reflection

Link on MOSH Site

The Literary References Doctor Who Has Introduced You To With Dr. Rosanne Welch– San Diego Who Con 2024 [Video]

At San Diego Who Con 2024 (https://www.sdwhocon.com/), I enjoyed lecturing on “From Shakespeare to Shelley or Dante to Dickens: The Literary References Who Has Introduced You To!”.

I first thought of it while watching an episode with my favorite classic Doctor Peter Davison. I heard a line that was so specific I thought that it had to come from some book I didn’t know. It did. So then I researched what other famous authors had been quoted by the various Doctors and deeply enjoyed finding lots of Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas and of course, Byron and Shelley were in that mix. It was a reminder that writers READ. They read a lot to fuel their work.

The lecture also allowed me to highlight some great English actors who’ve starred in Shakespeare’s works like Patrick Stewart, Derek Jacobi, and Alex Kingston – some of whom also (of course) guested on Doctor Who.

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Celebrate the Daring Dialogue of Women Writers with Dr. Rosanne Welch – Screenwriting Research Network Conference 2004, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czechia

With the conference theme “A Conversation Beyond Script,” I decided to use my presentation time to “Celebrate the Daring Dialogue of Women Writers,” which allowed me to introduce the audience to the work of famous female screenwriters, from Anita Loos to Mae West to Lillian Hellman.

Then I delved into some names lesser-known to our international SRN members because they came from the TV world before the great sharing that streaming has offered us. From Gertrude Berg of The Goldbergs in the 1950s to Susan Harris (Soap, Golden Girls) and Linda Bloodworth Thomason (Designing Women) we covered the progressive (and often controversial) topics they brought to mainstream Americans.

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