About
This seminar brings diverse individuals, institutions, and organizations together to critically explore the overarching theme of “Racial Reckoning through Comics,” through a series of events designed to address racial and ethnic representation in global popular culture as both a historical legacy and ongoing concern, with the latter emphasis allowing us to explore and celebrate the vital work of diverse contemporary creators from around the world who are revising past injustices to make emphatically anti-racist comics.
In addition to a year-long intensive seminar with local participants, the Sawyer Seminar features a series of public presentations by prominent visiting creators and scholars, a film series, workshops, podcasts, and other public events, all of which critically engage questions of racial representation in the popular international formats of comics. Mellon Sawyer Seminar funding also supports an in-residence post-doctoral fellow and the dissertation research of two affiliated UI graduate students.
“Racial Reckoning through Comics” is the third Mellon Sawyer Seminar hosted at the University of Iowa, and builds upon the strong foundations for comics studies at the University of Iowa established a decade ago when the co-directors brought major comics scholars, publishers, and artists to Iowa City for a series of events and exhibitions as part of the Obermann Humanities Symposium “Comics, Creativity, and Culture.” This Seminar is also designed to directly engage with ongoing discussions and initiatives around social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, in Iowa City, and beyond.