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 Today we continue our ‘BarbieHeimer’  (or Barbenheimer) series, and are talking today about the meme itself. Is it appropriate to mash these two films together? Is this frivolity making light of the serious impacts of nuclear weapons and the need for a refocus on non-proliferation and disarmament efforts? We speak with a scholar of Visual Politics and Visual Research Methods – Emily Faux - whose doctoral studies focus on what pop culture can tell us about nuclear weapons.

Emily is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University, UK. Her thesis investigates nuclear weapons and war through popular film, television, and video game. She is interested in the contemporary story and popular imagination of nuclear weapons and war, as it exists in the current geopolitical climate. Emily teaches at the University of Leeds and is a member of the FemNukes network, a contributor for HighlyNRiched and has completed both the EU's Young Women in Non-Proliferation and Disarmament mentorship scheme and the University of California's Public Policy and Nuclear Threats course.

Edited by Rosie Cavdarski.

Additional resources:

• Emily Faux: What Barbie can teach us about nuclear weapons, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 3 August 2023
• Emily Faux:  The Untold Stories Behind “Oppenheimer” , InkStick, 18 Jul 2023
• Nukespeak: the Media and the Bomb, edited by Crispin Aubrey 
• John Mecklin,  An extended interview with Christopher Nolan, director of Oppenheimer,  17 July 2023, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Jenny Johnston, Filmmaker on a Mission, 16 August 2020, N Square.