New Trajectories in Comics Studies

After having secured a foothold in academia, comics studies has turned attention to further solidifying the field by drawing connections to other disciplines and theoretical inquiries. In this book launch, we take a look at the current state of this inherently interdisciplinary field through the publication of four recent books.

This book launch will bring into dialogue the authors and editors of four comics studies publications from 2022. Key Terms in Comics Studies, co-authored and co-edited by Erin La Cour, Simon Grennan, and Rik Spanjers, maps the field of comics studies by bringing together nearly 100 contributors to define over 300 terms and critical concepts currently used in the Anglophone study of comics. In their co-edited volume Art History for Comics and their co-authored Seeing Comics Through Art History, Maggie Gray and Ian Horton counter the dominance of literary and media studies approaches to comics studies by illuminating the medium’s material and theoretical ties to and overlaps with art history. In Graphic Medicine, co-authors and co-editors Erin La Cour and Anna Poletti bring together comics studies and lifewriting scholars with comics artists to engage with the need for different perceptions and representations of illness and disability than those found in conventional medical discourse.

In discussing their colleague’s publications, the authors and editors offer an overview of present-day comics studies and begin to map necessary future inquiries for the advancement of the field. After the critical discussion, there will be a q&a session, followed by a reception.

About the speakers

Maggie Gray is Senior Lecturer in Critical and Historical Studies at Kingston University London. Her research focuses on the performative aspects of comics and cartooning, as a mode of drawing and storytelling, and the politics of performance thereby invoked. Her most recent publications include Art History for Comics (Palgrave 2022) co-authored with Ian Horton, and Seeing Comics Through Art History (Palgrave 2022) co-edited with Ian Horton.

Simon Grennan is a scholar of visual narrative and graphic novelist. He is author of Thinking about Drawing (Bloomsbury 2022), A Theory of Narrative Drawing (Palgrave 2017) and Dispossession (Cape 2015). He is co-author and co-editor of Key Terms in Comics Studies (Palgrave 2022) and co-author of Marie Duval: Maverick Victorian Cartoonist (Manchester University Press 2020), Marie Duval (Myriad 2018) and The Marie Duval Archive (www.marieduval.org) among others. www.simongrennan.com

Ian Horton is Reader in Graphic Communication at London College of Communication. He is a founding member of the Applied Comics Network and the Comics Research Hub (CoRH!!). His book Hard Werken: One for All (Valiz in 2018), co-authored with Bettina Furnee, is the first academic study of this influential avant-garde Dutch graphic design studio. His most recent publications include Art History for Comics (Palgrave 2022) co-authored with Maggie Gray, and Seeing Comics Through Art History (Palgrave 2022) co-edited with Maggie Gray.

Erin La Cour is Assistant Professor of English Literature and Visual Culture at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the mediality, intermediality, and affect of comics. She is the co-author and co-editor of Key Terms in Comics Studies (Palgrave Macmillan 2022) with Simon Grennan and Rik Spanjers, and Graphic Medicine (University of Hawai’i Press, 2022) with Anna Poletti. She is also co-founder and co-director of Amsterdam Comics and is a Comenius Fellow of The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO).

Anna Poletti is Associate Professor of English Language and Culture at Utrecht University. They research contemporary life writing across digital and analogue media. Their most recent publications include Graphic Medicine (University of Hawai’i Press, 2022) co-authored and co-edited with Erin La Cour, and Stories of the Self: Life Writing After the Book (NYU Press, 2020). Twitter: @poletti_anna

Rik Spanjers teaches comics and animation culture at the University of Amsterdam’s Media and Culture program. His recent publications include Key Terms in Comics Studies (Palgrave Macmillan 2022) co-authored and co-edited with Erin La Cour and Simon Grennan, and Een geschiedenis is getekende woorden: Het gebruik van handschrift en compositie in Peter Pontiacs Kraut. Twitter: @rikspanjers

Gerelateerde programma’s
02 05 25
Sieg Maandag: Trauma and Art in the Aftermath of Bergen-Belsen

Sieg Maandag (1937-2013) was seven years old when he was photographed by George Rodger as he walked among the piles of bodies in the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His father was killed there, his mother survived camp Beendorf and was reunited with him six months after the war. Sieg’s family were diamond dealers. After the war he learned to work with diamonds, traveled the world, fell in love, sang at the Paradiso night club, and painted hundreds of paintings and ceramics. This presentation, on the 80th anniversary of the photo documenting his liberation, focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to his art as representation and transformation. 

Datum
Vrijdag 2 mei 2025 17:00 uur
Locatie
SPUI25
14 11 24
Miek de Langen-lezing
Het interlandelijke adoptiedebat: over kinderrechten van toen, nu en straks

**Er is geen livestream of opname van deze bijeenkomst**

Op donderdag 14 november zal de vierde editie van de Miek de Langen-lezing, uitgesproken door Karl Hanson, in het teken staan van kinderrechten en het debat over interlandelijke adoptie. Deze jaarlijkse lezing is opgedragen aan Miek de Langen. Zij was hoogleraar Jeugdrecht aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam (1976-1992) en oprichtster van de Kinderrechtswinkel (1985).

Datum
Donderdag 14 nov 2024 20:00 uur
Locatie
Doelenzaal
28 10 24
The Architects of Dignity
Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization

In his new book, The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization, Kevin Pham introduces Vietnamese political thought to debates in political theory, showing how Vietnamese thinkers challenge Western conventional wisdom. These thinkers’ arguments are worthwhile for anyone concerned with freedom, democracy, and cross-cultural thinking. Tonight, Pham will discuss his book with scholar Yen Vu.

Datum
Maandag 28 okt 2024 20:00 uur
Locatie
SPUI25