Visiting Notre Dame Professor to Speak at UB on 'Princess Culture,' Oct. 16
September 16, 2015
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
University of Notre Dame Professor Susan Ohmer, an expert on the power of communication, will discuss the influence of Disney's "princess culture" on American families on Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., as a guest of the University of Baltimore's Klein Family School of Communications Design. Ohmer's talk will take place in Room 308 of UB's Liberal Arts & Policy Building, 10 W. Preston St. It is free and open to the public. The University of Notre Dame Alumni Association is co-sponsoring the event with the Klein School.
"For generations," Ohmer said, “from Snow White and Cinderella to Jasmine and Pocahontas to Rapunzel and Tiana, Disney princesses have been significant influences in many children's lives. Today's students are in a unique position to look at Disney princesses as cultural artifacts as well as part of their own personal experience."
An indicator of the importance of the princess culture phenomenon, Ohmer noted, is the fact that, taken all together, Disney's princess-themed merchandise, including films, videos, theme park elements, ice shows, dolls, costumes and so on, has generated more than $4 billion for the company—just since 2012.
"Many of today's high school and college students, as well as their parents, grew up with Disney princesses as part of the landscape of their childhoods," Ohmer said. "Now they're able to look back and think about gender roles, roles between children and parents, and other images and values that those characters embodied."
Ohmer, who has a Ph.D. from New York University, holds the William T. Carey and Helen Kuhn Carey Chair in Modern Communication at Notre Dame. She is the author of George Gallup in Hollywood (Columbia University Press, 2006) and is completing a book on the Disney studio during the 1940s.
For more information about this event, call 410.837.6038 or send an email to jshorr@ubalt.edu.
Learn more about the Klein Family School of Communications Design in UB's Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Public Affairs and the Merrick School of Business.