Scholarship as Conversation

Love on the Brain: Researching Romance in Popular Culture

Date: Spring 2025

Faculty Talk

Romancing History: The Past and Present Worlds of Netflix's Bridgerton Series with Dr. Julie Taddeo

Since it aired in December 2020, Bridgerton has played with history, giving viewers a romanticized version of Regency England-- favoring wisteria clad townhouses, elegant balls, and passionate carriage scenes over the realities of the Napoleonic Wars, industrialization, and the dirty streets of London through which the Ton would maneuver.  Everything from the cut of its gowns to the use of color blind and color conscious casting has raised criticisms about  Bridgerton's lack of historical "accuracy" and the dangers of ignoring the "ugly bits" of Britain's past, primarily its involvement in the slave trade. The criticisms directed against Bridgerton are part of a long tradition of trivializing genres that cater to women's pleasure.

This talk will dispel any feelings of guilt we have been told to have when we view period dramas and romances like Bridgerton. In addition to pleasure, historical fictions do indeed afford us opportunities to  interrogate the past and address our contemporary concerns. Bridgerton's premiere coincided not only with a global pandemic, but protests in the UK by Black Lives Matter activists who demanded the government and Royal family acknowledge the country's history of racism. Bridgerton also reveals the feminist potential of romance fiction, calling attention to the limited choices available to even aristocratic women, the punishment for breaking the rules, consent and sexual violence, the power of gossip, and in a youth and beauty-obsessed culture-- much like our own--  what it means to be an aging woman.  Storylines involving neurodivergent and queer characters further flesh out the diversity of Regency society and speak to the diverse demographic of fans who enjoy this series. Engaging with these types of programs, as fans and/or as academics, allows us to make history relevant, entertaining, and accessible to students and audiences beyond the university classroom.

Julie Taddeo is the author of Lytton Strachey and the Search for Modern Sexual Identity (2002) and co-author of Rape in Period Drama Television: Consent, Myth, and Fantasy (2022) and several articles on British modernism, sexuality, and twentieth century popular culture. Her edited collections include Writing Australian History On-screen: Televisions and Film Period Dramas "Down Under" (2023); Diagnosing History:  Medicine in Television Period Drama (2022); Conflicting Masculinities: Men in Television Period Drama (2019); Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey (2014); Catherine Cookson Country: On the Borders of Legitimacy, Fiction, and History (2012); The Tube Has Spoken: Reality TV & History (2009); and Steaming into A Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology (2012). She has edited a special issue on "Bridgerton" for the Journal of Popular Television (2023) and her current project is an examination of the history of the National Health Service on British Television. She has been interviewed by international news outlets including the BBC and the New York Times and featured in Maryland Today multiple times. Julie is the resident area expert on the Royal family.  She also gives public lectures on British history from the Georgians through the twentieth century and uses British popular culture like period drama  television to reach audiences beyond the university. One of her interviews on Royal weddings is here.

Her courses specialize in Victorian cultural and social history; Twentieth Century British history taught through the lens of popular culture; Modern British surveys; the History of Britain at War; Victorian Scandal and Crime; and The History of Women in Modern Britain.

Julie Taddeo also serves as Director of the Department of History Undergraduate Internship Program and Faculty Adviser to the History Undergraduate Association (HUA). She is the 2023 recipient of the Provost’s Excellence Award for Research for Professional Track Faculty.

Workshops

• From Friends to Lovers: Turning Your Pop Culture Interests into Scholarship (Lexi Kadis)
  • What's on your bucket list of scholarly ideas? Do you have an interest that does not fit within your existing research expertise? This workshop will help you bring your niche and random ideas out of the dark and into the spotlight. Join us to learn about one scholar's experiences in pop culture research, and how you, too, can find spaces and platforms for sharing your passion. Come ready to discuss your own ideas and collectively brainstorm how we can transform our interests into tangible scholarship.
• Share Your Story: ArcGIS Online Mapping and StoryMapping (Anna Harmon)
  • ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based mapping and analysis solution. Use it to make maps, analyze data, and collaborate. Get access to workflow-specific apps, maps and data from around the globe, and tools for being mobile in the field. Work with smart, data-driven styles to explore and visualize 2D and 3D data. Share your maps with anyone or keep them private. Work collaboratively with your colleagues to build maps, scenes, apps, and notebooks. Access intuitive analysis tools that help you better understand your data. Combine it with ArcGIS StoryMaps to help you tell remarkable stories with custom maps that inform and inspire. Maps are an essential component of many narratives, which may affect change, shape opinion, and raise awareness. ArcGIS StoryMaps can give your narrative a stronger sense of place, illustrate spatial relationships, and add visual appeal and credibility to your ideas.
• Worth Fighting For: Banned Books, Censorship, and the Freedom to Read (Lindsay Inge Carpenter)
  • Book bans in the United States are on the rise, with PEN America reporting more than 10,000 book bans in public schools during the 2023-2024 school year. These bans have specifically targeted works that pro-censorship groups identify as "sexually explicit," many of which feature LGBTQ+ characters and themes, or which discuss themes of race and racism. In this workshop, we will discuss local and national trends in book banning, as well as ways to get involved in freedom to read initiatives.
• Forbidden Love: Media and Copyright Law in the Classroom (Brynne Norton & Leigh Ann DePope)
  • Do you want to show popular films and tv shows in your classroom? Do you want to include streaming media in your syllabus? Do you want to screen a film at the University of Maryland Libraries? Do you want to do all of this without running afoul of media and copyright law? Learn how to navigate legal considerations while incorporating popular culture into your teaching!  Get all of your media and copyright questions answered at this workshop facilitated by UMD Libraries experts Brynne Norton, Head of Resource Sharing & Reserves, and Leigh Ann DePope, Head of Acquisitions, Continuing Resources & Data Services. 

Film Screenings

• Past Lives with the UMD AAPI Literature and Media Club
• Love & Basketball with Nneka Chisholm
• My Beautiful Laundrette with the LGBTQ+ Equity Center