She needed a hero, so that’s what she became… 

Demi-Goddess and Amazonian warrior Princess Diana of Themyscira – otherwise known as Wonder Woman – is the ultimate female superhero and remains one of the most iconic, kick-ass creations of the 20th century.

Strength and intelligence combined with a powerful sense of justice have made her a feminist and LGBT icon over the decades. Using her golden cuffs, tiara and lasso of truth, she has fought for what is right. However, when the United Nations announced that Wonder Woman was a new honorary ambassador for women in 2016, it faced an internal and external backlash. Many felt that Wonder Woman was over-sexualised and that her role as the ultimate American pin-up girl and her use of violence, did not make her relatable to women and girls worldwide.

Join Wonder Woman experts, Joan Ormrod, Michael Goodrum and Leah Moore, with event chair David Barnett, as they discuss Wonder Woman’s origins and cultural significance from past to present.

About The Speakers

Joan Ormrod

Joan Ormrod is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.  Her research is in popular culture particularly comics, gender, fantasy and science fiction. Her current research is in romance comics, Wonder Woman and time in comics.  She is editor of The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (2010-) and organises The International Conference of Graphic Novels and Comics with David Huxley.  Her recent publications include Superheroes and Identities (2015), Time Travel in Popular Media (2015), essays on Wonder Woman, Roger Corman’s adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe and vampire fandom.

Michael Goodrum

Michael Goodrum is a Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University, where he teaches modules on superheroes and American history.  He is the author of Superheroes and American Self Image: From War to Watergate (Ashgate, 2016), and the co-editor of Gender and the Superhero Narrative (UP Mississippi, 2017).  He has written widely on superheroes in relation to theories of gender, heroism, and nationalism, and received the Whedon Studies Association ‘Mr Pointy’ Prize for his co-edited volume, Firefly Revisited (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).  He is currently working on a book on horror comics and a series of articles on Captain W. E. Johns.

Leah Moore

Leah Moore has written comics for the last fourteen years, most recently adapting Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by MR James, and contributing to Femme Magnifique, a feminist anthology edited by Shelly Bond. Sharing script duties with her husband John Reppion, she writes Storm Warning for 2000ad, has a frustrating amount of projects that she cannot yet announce and has a regular column in Comic Heroes magazine.

About The Chair

David Barnett

David Barnett is an author and journalist based in West Yorkshire. His latest novel is Calling Major Tom, published by Trapeze. He writes mainly for the UK national press on books, culture and general topics, and is published regularly in the Guardian, Independent, and several magazines and online platforms.