Come and join us for a lively discussion on the formative influences on the band's humour, their output as a group and as individuals, and the texts produced in response to the Beatles.
About the editors
Dr Richard Mills is a associate professor in English and Popular Culture at St Mary’s University, London. He has been programme director for the Film and Popular Culture, Cultural Studies and Irish Studies degrees. He has published extensively on popular music, Irish literature and culture, film, fashion and British television.
Mills is the author of The Beatles and Fandom: Sex, Death and Progressive Nostalgia (Bloomsbury 2019). He is co-editor of Mad Dogs and Englishness (Bloomsbury 2017) and he is author of the forthcoming The Beatles and Black Music: Post-colonial Theory, Musicology and Remix Culture (Bloomsbury 2024) and The Beatles and Humour (Bloomsbury 2023). Richard is a regular contributor to BBC4’s Last Word, Sky News, RTE, Portobello Radio and BBC Live. He is also on the editorial board of The Journal of Beatles Studies.
Katie Kapurch, PhD is associate professor of English at Texas State University. Her scholarship focuses on icons and the iconic across media, especially phenomena at the intersections of literature, music, and film. In addition to chapters and articles that consider the representation of gender, race, and sexuality in popular culture, she has authored the monograph Victorian Melodrama in the Twenty-First Century: Jane Eyre, Twilight, and the Mode of Excess in Popular Girl Culture (2016) and has co-edited the collection New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles (2016, with Kenneth Womack). Katie's latest book, Blackbird: How Black Musicians Sang the Beatles into Being—and Sang Back to Them Ever After (2023, with Jon Marc Smith) was supported by a major award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Katie is currently finishing a book about the Disneyfication of pop music. Katie is co-editor of the academic journal AMP: American Music Perspectives.
Matthias Heyman is assistant professor in the Arts at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and lecturer at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, Belgium, where he is the vice-chair of research. He also is pstdoctoral fellow at LUCA School of Arts, Leuven and freelances as a double bassist. He has a forthcoming monograph on jazz bassist Jimmie Blanton.
Wine and snacks will be served.
For more information, kindly contact Dr Richard Mills at richard.mills@stmarys.ac.uk
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