Call For Papers: Transitions 5

By John Freeman on July 25, 2014

Dr Jason Dittmer is on of the keynotes speakers at Transitions 5 in October.

Transitions 5 – New Directions in Comics Studies, an academic symposium taking place on Saturday October 25th 2014 at Birkbeck, University of London, has just issued its “Call for Papers”. The symposium aims to promote new research and multi-disciplinary academic study of comics/ comix/ manga/ bande dessinée and other forms of sequential art.

Keynotes speeches will be made by Dr. Jason Dittmer (UCL, author of Captain America and the Nationalist Superhero: Metaphors, Narratives, and Geopolitics); Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll (University of Kent), with Dr. Roger Sabin (Central Saint Martins, Comics, Comix &am p; Graphic Novels) as respondent.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to: • text-oriented approaches • studies of key creators • historical and contemporary studies of production and circulation of comics • readerships and fan cultures • critical reception • formats, platforms and contexts • the (im)materiality of comics • archival concerns • formalist/narratological approaches • comics and aesthetics • adaptation, convergence and remediation • international iterations and transnational comics • children’s comics • political comics • comics and cultural theory • ideological/discursive critiques • web comics • graphic medicine • non-fiction comics • comics as historiography • comics practice and theory • cultural histories/geographies…

Abstracts for twenty minute papers should be no more than 250 – 300 words. Proposals for papers and panels should be sent as Word documents, with a short biography appended, an d submitted by the 30th July 2014 to Hallvard, Tony and Nina at transitions.symposium@gmail.com.

Transitions 5 – New Directions in Comics Studies is supported by Comica, The Centre for Contemporary Literature (Birkbeck), and the Contemporary Fiction Seminar.

About the Author
Latest Posts

John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.