Our panels–and cash bar!!!–at MLA in January, and other comics related events

Panels run by the Comics and Graphic Narratives Forum

Thursday January 4

Connecting the Dots: Museums and Comics

7:00–8:15 p.m., Sutton Center, Hilton

Presiding: Nhora Lucia Serrano, Hamilton C

1. “At Home in the Museum,” Catherine Labio, U of Colorado, Boulder
2. “Paracomics: Art as Comics,” Vasilios Kartalopoulos, New School
3. “Tintin in the World of the Artifact: Authenticity and Artifice, Colonialism and Copyright,” Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, Palomar C
4. “‘There’d Be a Hanging’: Community as Art Gallery, Comic as Museum in Gilbert Hernandez’s Human Diastrophism,” Osvaldo Oyola, New York U

Friday January 5

Teaching Global Arab Comics in the United States

5:15–6:30 p.m., Concourse G, Hilton

Collaborative session—GS Comics and Graphic Narratives and CLCS Global Arab and Arab American.

Presiding: Pauline Homsi Vinson, Diablo Valley C

1. “Teaching and Drawing Boundaries in South-South Collaborations: The Seventh Issue of Lab619 as a Case Study,” Rania Said, Binghamton U, State U of New York

3. “Depicting the Graphic in Abirached’s A Game for Swallows and Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi,” Rachel Norman, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
4. “Palestine at the Crossroads: Teaching Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi as a Mediterranean Comic,” Tera Reid- Olds, U of Oregon

Sunday January 7

Comics and the Culture Wars

8:30–9:45 a.m., Central Park West, Sheraton

Presiding: Aaron Kashtan, U of North Carolina, Charlotte

1. “‘The Truth of Matters’: Transnational Human Diastrophism and the Culture Wars in the Work of Gilbert Hernandez,” Osvaldo Oyola, New York U

2. “Queer Representation in Sandman: Comics in the Culture Wars of the 1990s,” Leah Misemer, Georgia Inst. of Tech.

4. “Super Social Justice Warriors: DC Rebirth’s Green Arrow and the Comic Culture Wars,” Anastasia Salter, U of Central Florida
5. “Queering Captain America: Fandom Rewritings of a Jewish Superhero Icon,” Megan Fowler, U of Florida

The Forum’s Annual Cash Bar!

Time: Friday Jan. 5, 7:15-8:45 p.m.

Location: 1177 Avenue of the Americas, 7^th floor

Please note: this location is a five minute walk due south on 6^th Ave. from the conference hotels.  The building fronts 6^th, it is clearly marked, and the lobby desk will readily direct attendees to the event.  All are welcome!

 

Other panels concerning comics at this year’s MLA

 

Thursday Jan. 4

Global Anglophone: Other Than Fiction

12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., New York Ballroom West, Sheraton

Program arranged by the forum CLCS Global Anglophone

Presiding: Sonali Perera, Hunter C, City U of New York

1. “‘Omiyale’: Nigeria, New Orleans, and the Poetics of Disaster,” Avery Slater, U of Toronto
2. “Caribbean Voices in London,” Peter Miller, U of Virginia
3. “Dalit Graphic Novels: Sites of Dialogue and Dissent,” Ruma Sinha, Syracuse U
4. “Fodder for the Future Canon,” Deepika Bahri, Emory U

Narrativizing Insecurity in Indian Comics

12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., Sutton Place, Sheraton

A special session

Presiding: Anuja Madan, Kansas State U

1. “Endangered Species: Exploring the Animacy Hierarchy in Malik Sajad’s Munnu,” Amit Baishya, U of Oklahoma

2. “Mythological Superhero Comics of Counterviolence,” Sharmila Mukherjee, Bronx Community C, City U of New York

3. “Class Inequity and Water Racism in Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri,” Anuja Madan

Strips of Modernity: Affect, Labor, and Identity in Early Comics

5:15–6:30 p.m., Nassau East, Hilton

A special session

Presiding: Hillary L. Chute, Northeastern U

1. “‘Things Are Going to Be Bad!’: The Emergence of the Working Woman in the Early Comic Strip,” Ksenia Sidorenko, Yale U

2. “A Battle of Wills: The Woodcut Novel and the Politics of Form,” Olivia Badoi, Fordham U
3. “The Queer Tortured State of Prince Valiant,” Eyal Amiran, U of California, Irvine

Respondents: Nhora Lucia Serrano, Hamilton C; Michael Tisserand, author

 

Friday January 5

4H: History, Hamilton, and Hip- Hop in High School

12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., Empire Ballroom West, Sheraton

Program arranged by the forum GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature.

Presiding: Jan Christopher Susina, Illinois State U

1. “History in Three Minutes: Interrogating the Uses of Billy Joel’s List Song,” Jennifer A. Low, Florida Atlantic U

2. “21: The Story of Roberto Clemente: Teaching History through Graphic Biography,” Joshua Adams, DePaul U

3. “‘Freedom’ in History: Teaching Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s BET Performance,” Bethany Jacobs, Georgia Inst. of Tech.

4. “Resignifying the Body of History: Hamilton and Hybrid, Subaltern Forms,” Sandra K. Stanley, California State U, Northridge

Graphic Resistance: Comics and Social Protest

1:45–3:00 p.m., New York Ballroom West, Sheraton

A special session

Presiding: Margaret Galvan, U of Florida; Leah Misemer, Georgia Inst. of Tech.

Speakers: Liz Adams, Duke U; José Alaniz, U of Washington, Seattle; Rebecca Giordano, U of Pittsburgh; Susan E. Kirtley, Portland State U; Nicholas Miller, Hollins U; Alexander Ponomaref, U of Massachusetts, Amherst

Saturday January 6

Graphic States of Insecurity

1:45–3:00 p.m., Empire Ballroom East, Sheraton

A special session. Presiding: Jonathan Najarian, Boston U

1. “Making Comics: Word and Image in Nonfiction Narratives,” Josh Neufeld, independent scholar
2. “The Child as Witness in Riad Sattouf ’s The Arab of the Future,” Nima Naghibi, Ryerson U; Andrew O’Malley, Ryerson U

3. “Now and Then: Richard McGuire and Lauren Redniss’s Representational Extremes,” Christopher Spaide, Harvard U

Respondent: Hillary L. Chute, Northeastern U

Ignite Talk: Alison Bechdel on the Page, Onstage, and in Theory

3:30–4:45 p.m., Beekman, Hilton

A special session

Speakers: Leah M. Anderst, Queensborough Community C, City U of New York; Alissa Bourbonnais, U of Washington, Seattle; Judith Gardiner, U of Chicago; Dana A. Heller, Old Dominion U; Robert Hutton, Carleton U; Susan E. Kirtley, Portland State U; Aubrey Mishou, Old Dominion U

Testimonial Turns and Carceral States: The Atermaths and Aterlives of Japanese

American Internment in Asian American Creative Noniction

5:15–6:30 p.m., Chelsea, Sheraton

Program arranged by the forum LLC Asian American

Presiding: Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, U of Connecticut, Willimantic

1. “Graphic Memoir as Visual Testimony: Documenting the Injustice of Japanese Internment in Miné Okubo’s Citizen 13660,” Roberta Wolfson, California State Polytechnic U, San Luis Obispo

3. “Community Means Contained: Internees, Refugees, and Ambivalent Activism,” Timothy Yu, U of Wisconsin, Madison
4. “The Queer Internment Testimonial of Karen Kehoe,” Chris Vials, U of Connecticut, Storrs
5. “Don’t Tell on Mama: Chinese American Memoir in the Confession Era,” Heidi Kim, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Sunday January 7

Mapping Jewish Geographies

10:15–11:30 a.m., Riverside Suite, Sheraton

Program arranged by the forum LLC Jewish American

Presiding: Victoria Aarons, Trinity U

1. “West of the Ghetto: Regionalism and Religion in Emma Wolf ’s Heirs of Yesterday,” Lori Harrison- Kahan, Boston C

2. “Navigation and the Form of Environment in Reznikof’s Jerusalem the Golden,” David Rodriguez, Stony Brook U, State U of New York

3. “Geopolitical Bodies: Reading Insecurity through Jewish Graphic Narratives,” Laini Kavaloski, State U of New York, Canton

Community in the Wake of the Social: Literary Insecurities in Modern and Contemporary Korea

10:15–11:30 a.m., Concourse C, Hilton

Program arranged by the forum LLC Korean

Presiding: Christopher Hanscom, U of California, Los Angeles

1. “‘To a Poet in the South’: Rethinking Community across the Thirty-Eighth Parallel in 1950s–1960s Korea,” Jonathan Kief, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor

2. “Politics of Purity: The Queer Community of ‘Literary Girls’ in Cold War South Korea,” Kyunghee Eo, U of Southern California

3. “Media Convergence as Destabilization: The Transversality of Comics, Web Tunes, and Visual Media Communities in W,” Haerin Shin, Vanderbilt U

Framing New York City in Comics

12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., Madison Square, Sheraton

A special session. Presiding: Robin S. Hammerman, Stevens Inst. of Tech.

1. “Drawn from the Stage: Nineteenth-Century United States Comics and New York City’s Theater Culture,” Alex Beringer, U of Montevallo

2. “Between Strange and Familiar: Old New York in Contemporary Jewish Comics,” Julia Alekseyeva, Harvard U

3. “When Frames Disappear: Gotham City between Violence and Vengeance,” Lisann Anders, U of Zurich

4. “Great American Myths: New York City and Conservative Utopianism,” Joseph Donica, Bronx Community C, City U of New York

 

 

 

Our two Forum panels this year (and our cash bar!) and some other panels to note:

Saturday, 7 January

581. Alien Lines: Science Fiction Comics

1:45–3:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom Salon A, Philadelphia Marriott

Program arranged by the forums GS Comics and Graphic Narratives and GS Speculative Fiction

Presiding: Aaron Kashtan, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte

1. “Don’t Let Them Touch and Despair You: World Construction in the World of The Wrenchies and It Will All Hurt,” Phoebe Salzman-Cohen, Penn State Univ., University Park

2. “‘This Is How an Idea Becomes Real’: Bodies in Saga,” Daniel John Pinti, Niagara Univ.

3. “‘I’m Getting Too Good to Ignore’: The Feminist Politics of Sharon Ruhdal’s Dystopian Comics,” Margaret Galvan, New York Univ.

4. “Feeling The Puma Blues: The Dilution of Science Fiction and the Decline of the Creator within Independent Comics’ Golden Age,” Keith McCleary, UC San Diego.

 

Saturday, 7 January

676. Cash Bar Arranged by the Forum GS Comics and Graphic Narratives

7:00–8:15 p.m., Franklin 4, Philadelphia Marriott

 

Sunday, 8 January

787. Graphic Narrative, Comics, and Temporality

1:45–3:00 p.m., Independence Ballroom Salon III, Philadelphia Marriott

Program arranged by the forum GS Comics and Graphic Narratives

Presiding: Martha B. Kuhlman, Bryant Univ.

1. “Past and Present Colors: Drawing Style as Temporal Framework in Comics,” Rikke Platz Cortsen, Univ. of Texas, Austin

2. “‘Paradise Now’: Messianic Time in the Iranian Graphic Protest Novel,” Charlotta Salmi, Univ. of Birmingham

3. “Drawing the Anthropocene? Intimacy and Antihuman ‘Deep Time,'” Aarnoud Rommens, Univ. of Liege

4. “Reading in the Deep: Time and the Z-Axis in Richard McGuire’s Here and Dan Clowes’s Patience,” Joshua Kopin, Univ. of Texas, Austin

 

Additional comics-related panels of note:

189. Reading and Seeing Modernism and Graphic Narrative: Form, Medium, Aesthetics

 

285. Graphic Queer / Queer Graphics: Seriality and Sexuality in Graphic Form

 

646. Placing Gender in the Graphic Novel

 

650. Invisible Made Visible: Comics and Mental Illness

 

281. “Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound”: Psychoanalysis, Comics, and Architecture

 

27. Getting Religion: Children’s Literature as Sacred Text

 

210. Graphic Narratives

 

282. “I Die Daily”: Police Brutality, Black Bodies, and the Force of Children’s Literature

 

353. What Next? Adventures in Episodic and Serial Form

 

475. Graphic Style and Big Data

 

524. The Life of the Child’s Mind: Rethinking Education and Intellect in Literature for Young People