From October 23-25, 2024, the 19th annual conference of the Society for Comics Studies (ComFor) will take place at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The event is organized by Janina Wildfeuer and Barbara Postema. Keynote speakers are Elisabeth El Refaie (Cardiff University), Irmela Krüger-Fürhoff (Freie Universität Berlin) and Erin La Cour (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).
“Initiated in 2007, the area of study called ‘Graphic Medicine’ has developed into an impressive field of research that is today broadly understood as “the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare” (Czerwiec et al. 2015). As a discipline, it understands itself as an ‘emerging area of interdisciplinary academic study’ including both theoretical and methodological developments from several disciplines connected to comics studies as well as practical insights and applications from medical practitioners in the healthcare context.
The conference would like to bring these theoretical and methodological developments as well as practical insights and applications together and offer a fruitful place for discussion and critical evaluation of the discipline and its most recent developments and insights. We aim at opening the conference again for an international context with topics such as: Graphic Medicine for Scholarship, Graphic Storytelling and Medical Narrative; Graphic Pathography; Iconography of Illness; practical applications of Graphic Medicine.”
Programme:
Wednesday, 23 October 2024
14:30: Opening (with Coffee)
15:00 – 16:30: Panel 1
Andrea Hoff:
Adventures with Miss Conduct: Graphic Medicine as a Neurodivergent Origin Story
Kerstin von Bargen:
Neurodiversität im Comic – Vermittlung von „anderen Arten zu denken“
Shweta Gupta:
Critical Analysis of the Evolution and Role of Iconography of Illness in the 21st century
16:45 – 18:00: Keynote
Irmela Krüger-Fürhoff, Freie Universität Berlin:
Ageing in Graphic Narratives: On Frailty, Embodied Memories, and Relational Selves
Thursday, 24 October 2024
Barbara M. Eggert:
Against Black-and-White Thinking! Coloring Mental Illness in Autobiographical Comics and Medication Advertising
Octavia Roodt:
Compassion Comics: Directing Empathy through Mindfulness-Based Compassion Principles
Eszter Szép:
My Body and/on the Line: Medical and Personal Look and Drawing the Female Body in Contemporary Hungarian Comics
Lisa Daria Kennedy:
Diary Comics: Drawn to Life
11:00 – 11:15: Coffee Break
Paul Mitchell:
Men’s Cancers in Autographic Illness Comics
Imke Heine:
Nicht real, aber wahr: Von der Autobiographie zum semi-fiktionalen Sachcomic bei Lou Lubie
Raghavi R. K.:
“I am grateful to my Cancer”: Breast Cancer and Indian Graphic Narratives
13:00-14:15: Lunch Break, Coffee
14.15-15.30: Keynote
Elisabeth El Refaie, Cardiff University:
Fostering embodied empathy though visual metaphor in graphic illness narratives
15:30-17:00: Panel 4
Katharina Hülsmann:
The Autobiographical Manga of Nagata Kabi – A Multi-Layered Work in Progress
Arnold Bärtschi:
About Hare Droppings and Horse Saliva. Functionalizations of Ancient Medicine in Mari Yamazakiʼs and Miki Toriʼs Manga Plinius
María José Mompeán Mejías:
Patient-Clinician Communication in the Shadow of the Disease: The Difference an Image Can Make
17:00: Exhibition:
Survivors: Reborn from Ashes, Meet the Artist: Mo Qasem
18:30: Award Ceremony Martin-Schüwer-Preis
Borrel/Drinks
Friday, 25 October 2024
09:00-11:00: Panel 5
Mia Vrijens:
The Nurses’ Image Boomeranged
Fernando Casanova:
Iconography of Hypnosis: Exploring its Application to Language and Memory Disorders in French-Language Comics
Dusan Stamenkovic, Ielka van der Sluis, Janina Wildfeuer:
Adjective Traits and First Aid: Do We Trust Help Givers in Pictorial Instructions?
Massih Zekavat:
Comics, Humor, and Planetary Health
11:00-11:15: Coffee Break
11:15-12:15: Panel 6
Katharina Hülsmann, Tatjana Kasigkeit, Lea Zindel:
Open Educational Resources for Teaching on Comics: The collaborative project “Comicforschung.nrw”
12:15–13:30: Lunch Break
13:30-14:45: Keynote
Erin La Cour, VU Amsterdam
A Movement for Change: Transdisciplinary, Collaborative Graphic Medicine
14:45-16:30: Workshop Mark Hektor
Science Communication and Visuals
16:30: Closing