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<div align="center"><font size=2 color="#808080">UNSW Media, Film and
Theatre Seminars<br>
5 p.m. Wednesday 4 May 2005<br>
Webster Building 327<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=7 color="#800080">Writing Shame<br><br>
</font><font size=6 color="#008080">Elspeth Probyn<br>
</font><font color="#008080">Professor of Gender Studies, University of
Sydney<br><br>
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<font size=2 color="#808080">In <i>Blush: Faces of Shame</i>
(forthcoming, Minnesota UP & UNSW Press), I argue that shame can be a positive force. At an individual level, it can compel a micro-ethics which involves a reevaluation of the shame; at the collective level, acknowledging shame involves a rethinking of different forms of proximity, to the past, to ourselves, to others. I take a central point from Silvan Tomkins that there can be no shame without interest. There must be prior interest for shame to occur. Conversely, if you do not care about something or someone, there is no shame. In this paper I consider interest and writing, which I argue are crucial to making our ideas interesting, and in engaging beyond our own sometimes narrow circles within cultural studies.<br><br>
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Elspeth Probyn has taught media studies, sociology, and literature in Canada and the US, and is now the Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sydney. Her work focuses on questions of identity, sexuality and bodies. She has been constantly interested in what people think and do with their bodies from eating, sex, to emotions. She has published several books in these areas, including <i>Sexing the Self</i>, <i>Outside Belongings</i>, <i>Carnal Appetites</i>, <i>Sexy Bodies</i> and <i>Blush</i>. She is also interested in ethics, the media and popular culture, and recently co-edited with Catharine Lumgy <i>Remote Control</i>, a book on media ethics, and new forms of television such as reality TV and food shows. She also writes a fortnightly column in the HES of the <i>Australian</i>.<br><br>
Elspeth's research covers a number of areas all to do with identity and embodiment. She has held several large ARC grants, including 2001-2003 <i>The Practices and Performances of Alimentary Identity</i>, and 2001-2003 Co-investigator with Catharine Lumby. <i>Girl Cultures: A Study of Girls' Consumption of Popular Media</i>. With Jenny O'Dea she is conducting a ARC Discovery Grant project on <i>Youth Cultures of Eating</i>, which will provide the first nationwide survey of teenagers' and teachers' attitudes to food and eating, as well as an ethnographic account of how youth culture intersects with food.<br><br>
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<font color="#808080">_________________________________________________<br>
Dr James Donald<br>
Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences<br>
Professor of Film Studies, School of Media, Film and Theatre<br>
University of New South Wales<br>
Sydney<br>
NSW 2052<br>
Australia<br><br>
Telephone: <x-tab> </x-tab>(02) 9385 4858<br>
Mobile: <x-tab> </x-tab>0433 126445<br>
Facsimile:<x-tab> </x-tab>(02) 9662 2335<br><br>
International<br>
Telephone: <x-tab> </x-tab>+612 9385 4858<br>
Mobile: <x-tab> </x-tab>+61 433 126445<br>
Facsimile:<x-tab> </x-tab>+612 9662 2335</font></body>
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