Vol. 1 No. 1 (2019): Realizing Resistance: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Star Wars, Episodes VII, VIII & IX

The debut issue of Unbound is the Proceedings from Realizing Resistance: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Star Wars, Episodes VII, VIII & IX

Although Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope may have started out on shaky ground, its cinematic release in 1977 forever changed the landscape of American pop culture. As Douglas Brode has argued, Star Wars, simply put, had turned out to be not merely the latest momentary blip on the entertainment screen but an essential element of how we define ourselves through the movies and related media. Far from simply reflecting a particular film genre, Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon that has impacted pop culture for over four decades.

This conference critically explored what it means to be "with the Resistance" by focusing on Episodes VII, VIII, and (to the extent possible) IX, as well as the various ways these films reflect, contribute to, or even fail to show  "how we define ourselves through the movies and related media." In other words, this conference aimed to bring together scholars from across disciplines to examine the three most recent Star Wars films as cultural texts, with an explicit focus on themes of resistance and justice, and on how these films contribute to, reflect, or depart from broader contemporary cultural practices and social discourses.