PLEASE FIND THE INFORMATION AND RECORDINGS OF OUR EVENTS BELOW
Closing Event
April 14-15, 2023
All good things come to an end, and the Racial Reckoning through Comics Mellon Sawyer Seminar could not be prouder to announce the participation of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, creators of the award-winning Love and Rockets comics, for its closing event on April 14-15. We also partnered with FilmScene for a series of movie adaptations from comics. The series closed with KCET's Love and Rockets: The Great American Comic Book documentary, followed by a Q&A with the Hernandez Brothers.
Enjoy the full recording of our speakers in the links provided below:
Darieck Scott (UC Berkeley), "The World as Wakanda: Meditations on Fantasy, Utopia, and Super-powers." Introduced by Corey Creekmur (University of Iowa)
Natalia Hernandez on the artist's creative process. Introduced by Esther Claudio (University of Iowa)
Qiana Whitted (University of South Carolina), “Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics.” Introduced by Ana Merino (University of Iowa)
Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez in conversation. Introduced by Ana Merino and Corey Creekmur
Roundtable with Qiana Whitted, Natalia Hernandez and Darieck Scott. Moderated by Matt Griffin (University of Iowa) and Nicole Amato (University of Iowa)
The Hernandez draw for the Seminar:
- Jaime: Maggie
- Natalia
Drawing Panels, Crossing Borders: Representing the Self and Others
February 9-11, 2023
For our third "Racial Reckoning through Comics" Seminar, our visitors helped us examine racial representation across global popular culture as both a residual legacy demanding unflinching reckoning as well as a contemporary cultural practice increasingly dedicated to depicting and advocating for social justice. Extending from the global to the local, from international conflicts to our everyday lives, artists Joe Sacco and MariNaomi, together with scholar Candida Rifkind, José Alaniz and Jorge Santos discussed the representation of self and others in comics.
Enjoy the full recording of our speakers in the links provided below:
Joe Sacco in conversation with Rachel Williams (UNC School of the Arts): Upcoming. Introduced by Corey Creekmur and Ana Merino (University of Iowa).
José Alaniz (University of Washington): "Comics as Code-Switching in Los Four and Friends' Tales from the Barrio (1977)." Introduced by Ana Merino (University of Iowa).
MariNaomi, "How to Become an Overnight Success in Twenty Years." Introduced by Rachel Williams (UNC School of the Arts).
Candida Rifkind (The University of Winnipeg), "Towards a Hempispheric Black Comics Studies: Creolization, Surrealism and the Comics of Stanley Wany." Introduced by Kendra Strand (University of Iowa).
Jorge Santos (College of the Holy Cross), "Visualizing Vietnam: Just Memories of The Other Side." Introduced by Ana Rodríguez (University of Iowa).
Panel discussion: MariNaomi and Joe Sacco in conversation. Moderated by Esther Claudio (University of Iowa).
Days of Future Past: Histories and Futures of Racial Representation in Comics
November 4-5, 2022
To continue our year-long Mellon Sawyer Seminar devoted to “Racial Reckoning Through Comics,” we turned to critical and creative approaches to representing historical as well as potential futures of racial trauma, testimony, possibility, and expanded narrative. How have comics neglected as well as addressed racialized histories or imagined racialized futures? In addition to presentations from our speakers, this event included a guided archival tour of rare comics artifacts from the University of Iowa Library’s Special Collections, emphasizing the crucial role of the archive as both a resource for and witness to a troubling, often overlooked past as well as an invitation to necessary historical revision and ongoing reckoning.
Enjoy the full recording of our speakers in the links provided below:
Lara Saguisag (New York University): "The Filipino Wave: Comics and Racial Capitalism". Introduced by Ana Rodríguez (University of Iowa)
Julian Chambliss (Michigan State University): "Rethinking the Critical Afrofuturist Framework: Comics, Futurity, and Black Counterpublics". Introduced by Uche Anomnachi (University of Iowa)
Rachel Williams (UNC School of The Arts, North Carolina): "Comics and historiography: The process, image, text, story, and time". Introduced by Nicole Amato (University of Iowa)
Panel discussion: Lara Saguisag, Julian Chambliss and Rachel Williams. Led by Matthew Griffin.
How Do We Look?: Racial Reckoning through Comics
September 9-10, 2022
To begin our year-long Mellon Sawyer Seminar devoted to “Racial Reckoning Through Comics,” we asked—“How do we look?” Who, this question implicitly asks, are “we”? Does “how we look” involve how we view others or how we are viewed? Do we look—or are we looked at—with affection and respect or distrust and fear? This reciprocity is further complicated by larger historical and cultural forces, including popular culture. On the one hand, mainstream comics routinely perpetuate negative racial and ethnic stereotypes through visual representation. On the other, comics increasingly offer empowering narratives and histories of marginalized people and events. Coming together as comics artists and scholars of comics, our prominent visitors helped us explore this tension through their own critical and creative work, perspectives, and experiences.
Enjoy our speakers' presentations in the links below:
Frederick Luis Aldama (University of Texas, Austin): "Geometrizing Ethnoracial Formation Narratives in BIPOC Teen Comics". Introduced by Ana Merino (University of Iowa).
Stacey Robinson (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): "Calculating the Sensory Aesthetics of Black Liberation". Introduced by Rachel Williams (University of North Carolina)
Rebecca Wanzo (Washington University, St. Louis): "Redrawing the Western Canon: Race, Identification, and 'High' Art in Comics". Introduced by Corey Creekmur (University of Iowa)
Bishakh Som (Brooklyn, New York), "Trans/Migration: Explorations in Gender, Culture and Identity through Comics". Introduced by Esther Claudio (University of Iowa)
Panel discussion: Bishakh Som, Rebecca Wanzo, Stacey Robinson, Frederick Aldama. Led by Corey Creekmur.