CFP: Teaching Global Arab Comics in the US

Conference
MLA (Modern Language Association) Convention
Forum on Comics and Graphic Narratives
New York
January 4 - 7, 2018
Stichtag: 2017 03 15

This panel seeks papers that address graphic narratives by/about Arabs, and how they are taught or not taught today in the US. Some of the topics may include: circulation, translation, critical/pedagogical reception, aesthetics/politics of representation, gender, counternarrative, figurations of history, occupation, the status of refugees, and states of belonging. Genres to consider may include satire, memoir, fiction, journalism, or alternative formations. Possible comics may include the website PositiveNegatives, the zine Tok Tok, and the series The 99. Possible creators to consider may include Joe Sacco, Toufic El Rassi, Riad Sattouf, Farid Boudjellal, Magdy El Shafee, Zeina Abirached, Leila Abdelrazaq, Marguerite Dabaie, Nicole Georges, and Jana Traboulsi, among others. The organizers hope to collect a panel of presenters that would consider how, when, and which Arab comics and graphic narratives are taught or not taught in the U.S. Comparative as well as transnational approaches to pedagogy and production are welcome.

Abstracts by 15 March 2017; Susan E. Kirtley (skirtley@pdx.edu) and Pauline Vinson (pvinson@dvc.edu).

The Modern Language Association’s Forum on Comics and Graphic Narratives is, as usual, planning our allowed number of three panels for MLA in January ’18. Descriptions, with deadlines, contact info etc. of all three panels can be found on our website (just scroll down the page to see all three cfps).

This CFP is for a competitive session at MLA 2018, and is contingent on approval by the MLA Program Committee. Responses to individual submissions will be sent out by the beginning of April, but the MLA Program Committee will not consider the entire session proposal until after that date. All prospective presenters must be current MLA members by no later than April 2017.

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