CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – An upcoming symposium at the University of Illinois will use the popular TV show “Mad Men” as the catalyst for exploring one of the most transformative and turbulent periods in American history.
Titled, “Mad World: Sex, Politics, Style and the 1960s,” the Feb. 19 symposium will feature faculty experts from Illinois and other universities discussing various cultural themes that emerged during the ’60s and which are depicted in the Emmy- and Golden Globe award-winning TV series “Mad Men.”
Now in its third season, “Mad Men,” broadcast on the American Movie Classics channel, recently won its third consecutive Golden Globe award for best dramatic series. Set in the 1960s, the show centers on the professional and personal exploits of Don Draper, a Madison Avenue advertising executive, and other characters as they contend with the changing mores and values of the period.
“For whatever reason, the U. of I. is composed of ‘Mad Men’ fandoms,” said U. of I. English professor Lauren Goodlad. “There is just a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for the show, although the symposium is larger than that. The whole concept of the event is to look at the ’60s’ backdrop that the show uses and is its raison d’etre.”
Keynote speakers for the symposium will be Michael Szalay, a professor of English at the University of California at Irvine, and Lynne Joyrich, a professor of modern culture and media at Brown University.
Szalay’s research focuses on 20th-century American literature and culture. He is the author of “New Deal Modernism: American Literature and the Invention of the Welfare State” (Duke University Press, 2000).
Szalay’s keynote speech for the symposium is titled “Mad Style: Market Segmentation and the Birth of Cool.”
Joyrich has taught, lectured and written extensively on film, television, feminist, queer and cultural studies. She is the author of “Re-viewing Reception: Television, Gender and Postmodern Culture” (Indiana University Press, 1996). The title of Joyrich’s keynote speech is “Media Madness: Multiple Identity Disorder in ‘Mad Men.’ “
The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be in the Levis Faculty Center, 901 W. Illinois St., Urbana.
A complete schedule of symposium events is available on the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory Web site, (click on “conferences and other past events” in the right-hand column).
Co-sponsors for the symposium include the Trowbridge Office on American Literature, Culture & Society; the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics; and the Center for Advanced Study.
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