The comics form and practice will be discussed in relation to graphic medicine in a special online event on Wednesday 12th June, presenting researcher and cartoonist Kay Sohini in conversation with Jared Gardner, Joseph V. Denney Designated Professor of English and Director of Popular Culture Studies at Ohio State University.
This event is part of a Sadler Seminar Series led by Miriam Kent, Eirini Boukla and Rik Worth, and hosted by LAHRI, University of Leeds, titled “Expanding Narratives: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Comics.”
“This is an increasingly popular discipline that explores the connections between sequential art and healthcare and medical education,” say the event organisers.
“Using comics as a means of thinking through medicine and healthcare issues, Jared Gardner and Kay Sohini will reflect on their work and provide exemplars of innovative practice combining humanities scholarship, arts-based research and comics to ethically intervene in public discourse and raise awareness.
“By bringing together these perspectives, the event will explore the possibilities of using comics to engage in meaningful dialogue about healthcare issues.”
Kay Sohini is a researcher and cartoonist based in New York. She completed her comics-form PhD thesis, titled “Drawing Unbelonging: Comics as Thinking, as Method, as Resistance” at Stony Brook University in 2022.
Her graphic memoire, This Beautiful, Ridiculous City is forthcoming from Jonathan Cape in January 2025. Sohini’s expertise concerns the uses of comics in healthcare justice, race, gender, disability and environmental inequality.
Her graphic novel PhD thesis argued that comics are particularly useful in addressing representational challenges pertaining to climate change and disability justice.
Jared Gardner is Joseph V. Denney Designated Professor of English and Director of Popular Culture Studies at Ohio State University. He is the author of Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling (Stanford University Press, 2012), which traces the narratological implications of the history of sequential art and interactive storytelling.
He is also the curator of “Drawing Blood”, an exhibition held at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum (Ohio State University) in 2019. The project traces the history of comics and medicine from the eighteenth century to the present day.
• Who Cares for Comics? Graphic Medicine and Comic Art – Kay Sohini and Jared Gardner in Conversation | Online | 2.00pm Wednesday 12th June 2024 | Free | Register here
This is an online event. Registration is essential as details for attendance will be circulated only to attendees. The event will take place on Zoom and will be recorded. The talk is expected to be on hour in duration. The link to the Zoom meeting will be distributed a few hours before the event.
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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.
Categories: Comics, Comics Education News, Comics Studies, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
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