We are delighted to announce a call for papers for the Transitions 2020 symposium. Transitions is a platform for emerging research in comics that is free to attend and participate in.

This event is focused towards postgraduate and early career speakers, and usually draws a diverse crowd of both new and more established researchers, as well as creators, aficionados and other interested parties. Our aim is to build connections between comics scholars working in diverse academic departments and contexts, to provide a platform for productive debate, and to create a space from which further collaborations can emerge.

Keynote speakers: Prof Sylvia Kesper-Biermann (Universität Hamburg) and Dr Nick Sousanis (San Francisco State University)

Respondent: Professor Roger Sabin (University of the Arts London)

Rather than adopting a narrow theme, the shape and identity of the programme will emerge from the submitted papers. We thus welcome abstracts for 20 minute papers, or pre-constituted panels of three, on topics including (but not limited to):

Comics, comix, comic strips, graphic novels, manga, manhwa, bande dessinée, superheroes, adventure, war, horror, fantasy, crime, romance, humour & other genres; documentary/historical/journalistic comics, autobiographical/biographical modes, graphic medicine, politics of representation in comics, formal approaches, transgressive comics, educational and didactic comics, comics for young adults & children, readers and fandoms, creators, comics & the law, publishing histories, web-comics & comics exhibitions, transnational circulation, political economy of comics

Please send your proposal to transitionssymposium@gmail.com.

Please attach your abstract of 250-300 words plus a short biographical note (preferably as a Word document), indicating ‘abstract’ in the email subject line and your name in the file’s title.

This year we are also seeking volunteers to sketchnote / visually record each panel, in order to compile a visual record of the day. If you’d be interested in recording a panel, please email us a couple of (low-res) images or a link to an online portfolio at the above address with ‘sketchnoting’ in the subject line. You do not need to be submitting a paper to take part in this.

The deadline for submissions is 1 January 2020. We aim to notify applicants by Friday 17 January.

Click here to view the call for papers as a PDF.

With best wishes,

The Transition Team