ImageTexT is a peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of comics and related media. We are published by the English Department at the University of Florida with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Our content is available free of charge, and regular issues of ImageTexT will be published three times per year.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
THE JOHN A. LENT SCHOLARSHIP IN COMICS STUDIES,
INTERNATIONAL COMICS ARTS FORUM
The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF) is proud to announce once again the annual John A. Lent Scholarship competition. The Lent Scholarship, named for pioneering teacher and researcher Dr. John A. Lent, is offered to encourage student research into comic art. ICAF awards the Lent Scholarship to a current student who has authored, or is in the process of authoring, a substantial research-based writing project about comics. (Preference is given to master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, but all students of comics are encouraged to apply.)
“Reclaiming the Comic Book Canon”
Panel Chair A. David Lewis
40th Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Feb. 26 - March 1, 2009
Hyatt Regency - Boston, Massachusetts
After years on the burgeoning fringe, comic books – better known as “graphic novels” up in the ivory towers of academia – are now mainstream U.S. properties. No longer exclusively the realm of fanatic collectors, outcast misfits, or sneering speculators, the medium is now entering art galleries, multiplexes, and book clubs. But when they become the lucrative, marketed, popularized property of all, what gets lost? With its audience now spread across a widening demographic, what happens to the focus of the works? Or the risks?
Boston University is hosting a conference addressing the theme of religion in comics. From the website:
From the performance of religion in comics, to religious or mythic traditions among the elements of various works, to the use of comics by religious practitioners themselves, the relationship between comics and religion is dynamic and evolving. Given the increasing seriousness with which the public has come to view comics as an art form and Americans' fraught but passionate relationship with religion, "Graven Images" will provide an opportunity for discussion of cutting- edge artistic and social issues by exploring the roles of religion in comic books and graphic novels. This event is free and open to the public.
The event is being organized by Christine Hoff Kraemer and A. David Lewis. For more information, including a schedule of speakers and events, visit the conference webpage.
The University of Florida's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce the 2008 UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels: "ImageSexT: Intersections of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality," which will be held in Gainesville, Florida, on March 21-22, 2008.
ImageSexT: Intersections of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
This year's conference will focus on issues of representation in the most literal sense: that of the image on the page (screen, monitor, etc.).Presentations will move beyond facile reiterations of identity politics to explore the complexities and complexes of bodies and desires for artists, writers, and readers of comics. Here we are using "comics" in its broadest sense, to include animation, manga, anime, graphic novels, webcomics, political cartoons, and even some "fine art."
Guests for the 2008 UF Conference on Comics include Phoebe Gloekner, Gail Simone, and Sally Cruikshank. Two dozen academic presentations will explore the boundaries of sex, gender, and sexuality.
View more information at the conference website including the program and presentation abstracts.
The SUNY Press has recently published Gema Pérez-Sánchez's Queer Transitions in Contemporary Spanish Culture as part of their series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture. From the back of the book:
Gema Pérez-Sánchez argues that the process of political and cultural transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain can be read allegorically as a shift from a dictatorship that followed a self-loathing "homosexual" model to a democracy that identified as a pluralized "queer" body. Focusing on the urban cultural phenomenon of la movida, she offers a sustained analysis of high queer culture, as represented by novels, along with an examination of low queer culture, as represented by comic books and films. Pérez-Sánchez shows that urban queer culture played a defining role in the cultural and political processes that helped to move Spain from a premodern, fascist military dictatorship to a late-capitalist, parliamentary democracy.
If you are interested in reviewing this book for ImageTexT, please contact our Book Review Editor, Tof Eklund.
All content is (c) ImageTexT 2004 - 2006 unless otherwise noted. All authors
and artists retain copyright unless otherwise noted.
All images are used with permission or are permissible under fair use. Please
see our legal
notice.
ImageTexT is published by the Department of English at the University of Florida.