Undergraduate Fellowship in Digital Humanities (UFDH)

Built on Hope: The Feminist Star Wars Project is an online database that takes the larger Star Wars transmedia franchise and uses a critical feminist film theory lens in its analysis and interpretation of the various canon and non-canon (including Star Wars Legends) mediums (books, comics, video games, films, animated TV shows, and live action TV shows) and their characters. This project combines film, feminist, and transmedia theories in its analysis of the franchise to determine if viewers can read this science fiction-fantasy franchise as feminist. The project contains a series of viewing guides, reading guides, and interactive guides to the franchise to help readers identify and use a feminist lens in their interpretations and interactions with the Star Wars transmedia universe. By critically analyzing Star Wars media, Built on Hope will meet a new fan and academic need for updated and inclusive scholarship in the realm of Disney’s Star Wars. The Star Wars franchise is at its transmedial height at the moment, with several live-action TV shows, animated shows, the High Republic multimedia series, movie projects, and video games released or forthcoming in 2024 alone. This poster provides an overview of the project, complete with graphics demonstrating the transmedial nature of the franchise and the percentage of female character screen time in Star Wars movies between 1977 and 2017, while also looking at the digital humanities methods used to complete the project and the future of Built on Hope: The Feminist Star Wars Project.