They are holding a day-long academic conference on Frozen at UEA

Twee UEA lecturers are dedicating an entire day to debating the Disney movie Frozen at an academic conference next week.

While students slog it out in the library cramming for their last exams, lecturers will retreat into their ice palace (the UEA Music Centre) to debate the representation of gender roles in the children’s movie.

Probably more fun than anything you’ve studied this year

For the First Time in Forever, lecturers from other UK universities including Loughborough and Hull will travel to Norwich for the event on 12th May.

Any concerns about the notion of professional academics debating the merits of a children’s animated musical have been addressed by a spokesman for UEA who promises “serious issues will be discussed”.

The first talk of the day, given by Dr Amy Davis from the University of Hull, is titled: “Love Experts, Evil Princes, Gullible Princesses, and Frozen”.

The so-called “Symfrozium” promises to take a serious look at how women are portrayed within the Oscar-winning film, focusing on “the film’s apparent privileging of female kinship over heterosexual romance”.

She’s really let it go

Co-organiser of the event, Su Holmes said: “The event will interrogate in more detail some of the popular claims that have circulated around Frozen – the idea, for example, that it is somehow Disney’s ‘first’ venture into feminism, or that it is more ‘feminist’ than its predecessors.”

Lecturer Paul Wells from Loughborough told The Tab: “Though I often dreamed as a young boy that I would like to spend my birthday in a room full of women, I never imagined it would turn out to be a highly charged group of feminist academics deconstructing Disney.”

Would you rather analyse the gender dynamic here or just sing along?

Reaction to the event from students has been mixed, though one third year said: “I’d happily pay two per cent of my nine grand to see the Vice-Chancellor sing ‘Let It Go’ in a cabaret performance.”

Fourth year medical student Simon Beasley was less convinced of the need for a whole day dedicated to academic discussions about a film mostly watched by small children.

Speaking to The Tab he said: “Just enjoy the film. Can’t we just watch it instead of having to discuss it?”