As the 2019 House of Illustration exhibition Journeys Drawn: Illustration from the Refugee Crisis shows, graphic narratives are not just for entertainment. Comics are frequently used in more functional ways, in this case to raise awareness of the current refugee crises and the violent conflicts from which these emerge.  This year’s IGNCC will explore the impact of graphic narratives on a range of different social issues such as education, healthcare and politics, and reflect on our current position in the developing narrative of comics and comics scholarship.

We now invite proposals for 20-minute papers, or three-paper panels (please title your email PAPER PROPOSAL or PANEL PROPOSAL). Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• social justice and responsibility
• intersectionality and collective, social and political identities
• possible futures and sustainability
• discrimination and inequalities
• applied comics (e.g. informational, instructional, educational, public relations or journalistic)
• the comics industry: possible futures, developing practices, changing technologies
• the future and development of comics studies
• graphic justice, graphic medicine, comics journalism and other relevant genres
• digital practices and developing technologies
• narratives of conflict and resolution in comics
• comics as propaganda or political artefacts or tools to raise awareness
• the ethics of cartooning and comics
• social commentary, metaphor or allegory in graphic narratives

We are keen to encourage different formats and are also seeking the following (and are open to other suggestions):

• leaders for reading group sessions (60 mins): please submit your choice of creative or critical text for discussion.
  Please title your email READING GROUP.
• participants for research methods sessions (90 mins): please submit a paragraph summarising your methodological perspective and we will group you with other participants to each deliver a different reading of the same text (to be agreed between participants).
  Please title your email RESEARCH METHODS.
• leaders for workshops and activity-based sessions (60-90 mins): please submit a full proposal/description.
  Please title your email WORKSHOP.
• leaders for research questions discussion sessions (60 mins): please submit up to three proposed questions that you feel would benefit from collaborative discussion.
  Please title your email RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
• participants for lightning talks (10 mins each): please submit a proposal on any relevant theme/project.
  Please title your email LIGHTNING TALK.

Please submit your proposal (200 words or less), along with a short biography (100 words or less) by email to TheIGNCC@gmail.com before 1 March 2020.

For further information please contact:

• Ian Hague i.hague@lcc.arts.ac.uk
• Ian Horton i.horton@lcc.arts.ac.uk
• David Huxley davidhuxley@gmail.com
• Chris Murray c.murray@dundee.ac.uk
• Joan Ormrod j.ormrod@mmu.ac.uk
• Julia Round jround@bournemouth.ac.uk

www.IGNCC.com

@TheIGNCC  

#IGNCC20