THURSDAY, APRIL 20

9:00 AM: Welcome to ICAF 2023
Introduction by Qiana Whitted, Chair
Remarks by ICAF 2023 Site Liaisons Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam and C. W. (Toph) Marshall 
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

​9:15AM - 10:15 AM: Academic Keynote by Susan Kirtley, Portland State University
"The Role of the Rhetor: Feminist Disruption in Ms. Marvel." (CW for sexual assault)
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

10:30 AM - 11:45 AM: Center for Migration Studies Roundtable - Frederik Byrn Køhlert, University of East Anglia; Antje Ellermann, University of British Columbia; Sarah Leavitt, University of British Columbia; and guest artists, Emily Chou, Alyssa Hirose, and Jonathon Dalton
Moderated by Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam, University of British Columbia
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

12 PM - 1:30 PM: LUNCH BREAK
Thursday 1:30 PM-2:45 PM CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 1
Panel 1a: Representing Place in Graphic Narrative
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre​​
Moderated by José Alaniz, University of Washington
​
  • "The Strange Case of Nestor Makhno: Makhno: Ukrainian Freedom Fighter and Western Representations of Ukrainian History." Anastasia Ulanowicz, University of Florida
  • "Play and a politics of place in Australian comic books." Bernard Caleo, University of Melbourne​
  • "​Performing Resistance, Becoming Resistance: Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes." Krista Marie Turner​​, Western Michigan University
Panel 1b: Comics in the Global Classroom
​Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam, University of British Columbia
​
  • "Centering Graphic Narratives and Arts-Based Co-creation in Holocaust and Human Rights Education." Charlotte Schallié, University of Victoria & Andrea Webb, University of British Columbia
  • "Empowering Narratives in the Middle East: The Establishment of a Comics Lab at VCUarts Qatar."
    Michael Wirtz, VCUarts Qatar Library, and Leland Hill, Virginia Commonwealth University/ Comics Lab.
  • "Teaching on PALOP countries via comic books." Jakub Jankowski, University of Warsaw​
3:00 - 4:15 PM: CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 2
Panel 2a: The Comics Body
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
​
Moderated by Brittany Tullis, St. Ambrose University
​​
  • "Graphic Narratives and Reproductive Rights in Contemporary Spain." Marina Bettaglio, University of Victoria​
  • "Coloniality and Nutrition in Rius's œuvre." Annick Pellegrin, University of British Columbia
Panel 2b: Representing Indigenous Identity
Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Meghna Chatterjee, University of British Columbia
​
  • "Dissolving the Gutters: Haida Manga, Decolonizing Narratives, and Occupying White Spaces." Nicola Levell, University of British Columbia
  • "Bhimayana and the Reconstruction of Indigenous Identity through the Graphic Novel Form." Anu Sugathan, University of Oregon​
  • "Days of a Future Past: Narrating Past and Future Resistance to Colonial Practices." Mattia Arioli, University of Bologna
4:30 - 5:45 PM: CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 3
Panel 3a: Women's Stories, Women's Histories
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Joshua Kopin, Thomas Jefferson University
​
  • "Comics and the Pregnant Body: Reproductive Trauma and Reclamation in Lucy Knisley’s Kid Gloves and Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do."​ Jessica Baldanzi, Goshen College
  • "The Spectacle of Violence: Illustrating the Mutilation of Surpanakha." Shreyas R. Krishnan, Washington University in St. Louis
  • "Trauma and Testimony in Dominique Goblet’s Pretending is Lying." Ariela Freedman, Concordia University​
Panel 3b: Graphic Decolonization
Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Annick Pellegrin, University of British Columbia
​
  • "Decolonial Allegories in Marcelo D’Salete’s Comics." Alessandra Santos, University of British Columbia
  • "Water Protectors, Land Defenders, and the Decolonial Aesthetics of Cole Pauls’ Dakwäkada Warriors." David Kern, University of Cologne
  • "Appropriation or Inspiration? Colonial Continuities and Fan Reactions to Noda Satoru's Golden Kamuy (2014-2022)." Siti Umairah Binte Adnan​, National University of Singapore
7:30 PM- 9:00 PM: ARTIST TALK - Birgit Weyhe and Priscilla Layne
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
This hybrid event is co-sponsored by the International Comic Arts Forum, UBC Centre for Migration Studies, UBC Public Humanities Hub, and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany – Vancouver.
Register here via Zoom to attend virtually. 
FRIDAY, APRIL 21
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: John A. Lent Scholarship in Comics Studies Award Lecture
Cassia Hayward-Fitch, University of East Anglia, “'What’s funny about AIDS?': How Howard Cruse’s Wendel Confronted a Crisis”
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
10:15 AM-11:30 AM CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 4
Panel 4a: Comics and Other Arts
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
​Moderated by Arturo Meijide Lapido, St. Ambrose University
​​
  • The Visual Music of Emancipatory Promise: Wayne Shorter’s Emanon. Kevin McNeilly, University of British Columbia
  • Towards a New Critique of Comics Exhibitions.”
    Catherine Labio, University of Colorado Boulder
  • "Übergesamtkunstwerke: La línea and El dibujado as Total Art Interventions in Spain’s Museistic Space." Jennifer Nagtegaal, University of British Columbia​
Panel 4b: Remediation and Intermediality
Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Maite Urcaregui, San Jose State University
​

  • "Moving Images: Animation, Aesthetics, and Politics in Eunsoo Jeong’s Koreangry Comics."
    Jeanette Roan, California College of the Arts
  • "Remediation and General Arthrology in David Alexander Robertson and Scott B. Henderson’s 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga." ​James Gifford, Fairleigh Dickinson University​
  • "'X' Marks the Spot: Resignification and Finding Utopia in Hickman's House of X/Powers of X." Jamey Keeton, University of Rochester
11:30 - 1:00 PM: ROUNDTABLE & LUNCH - Sponsored by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
​​"Graphic Novels as Survivor Testimony in Nazi Germany and North America: Comics about Nazi Germany, Canadian Residential Schools, and American Japanese Internment Camps." Speakers: Charlotte Schallié, Kiku Hughes, Miriam Libicki, and Natasha Donovan. Moderated by Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam.
​Location: Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Lunch will be provided. Non-conference attendees, please click here to register. 
1:00 - 2:15 PM CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 5
Panel 5a: New Comics Theories
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Andrew Kunka, University of South Carolina, Sumter
​
  • "Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft: Creating Comics Countercanons." Aaron Kashtan, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
  • "Shadowboxing: Critique and the Postcritical Turn in Comics Studies." Marc Singer, Howard University
  • "Universal Experiences: A Panofskian Approach to Comics Studies." Jay Olinger, Portland State University​
Panel 5b: Queer Representation in Graphic Narrative
Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Joshua Kopin, Thomas Jefferson University
​
  • "The body that fell from space: Non-binary representations in Femimutancia’s comics." Alfredo Guzmán Tinajero, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos
  • "Early Trans Comics Histories." Margaret Galvan, University of Florida
  • "Harley Quinn is a Drag Queen." Sam Langsdale, Independent Scholar​​
2:45 PM-4:00 PM: CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 6
Panel 6a: Comics and the Expansive Classroom
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
​Moderated by Arturo Meijide Lapido, St. Ambrose University
​
  • "Teaching Graphic Medicine: Mental Health and Community Building." Leah Misemer, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • "Comics Go to School: Latinx Comics and the University." William Orchard​, Queens College, CUNY
  • “Building a Comics Curriculum that Inspires Change.” Elizabeth Pollard & Pamela Jackson, San Diego State University
Panel 6b: Graphic Landscapes
Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
​Moderated by C. W. (Toph) Marshall, University of British Columbia
​
  • ​“Our Future is in the Swamps!”: Abjection and Extraction in Joshua Dysart and Enrique Breccia’s Swamp Thing." Brannon W Costello, Louisiana State University
  • "Strange Distortions: Queer Ecology in Murphy/Zulli’s The Puma Blues." Jose Alaniz, University of Washington
  • "Perpetuating the Colonial Gaze: Earthquakes, Guerrilla, and Modern Spanish Representation of the Latin American Experience." Hector Fernandez L'Hoeste, Georgia State University
4:00-5:15 PM: CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 7
Panel 7a: Comics in the American Multicultural Society
Peña Room (301), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
​Moderated by Qiana Whitted, University of South Carolina
​
  • "‘Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick’ – On the multiple facets of diversity in George Herriman’s Krazy Kat." Daniela Kaufmann, Independent Scholar
  • "The Combustibility of Caricature in Jewish Anti-Racist Comics." Jamie Michaels, University of Calgary
  • "Distant Viewing Comics: Form, Race, and Gender in 100,000 North American Comic Strips at Scale." Justin Wigard, University of Richmond
Panel 7b: Comics and Its Publics
Dodson Room (302), located on Level 3 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Moderated by Andrew Kunka, University of South Carolina, Sumter
​
  • "Stealing Comics: How US Librarians of the 1970s and 1980s Invented a Problem to Fight." Joe Sutliff Sanders, University of Cambridge
  • "Gone Books and Hybrid Publics." Fi Stewart-Taylor, University of Florida​
  • "Displacement Drawings: A Century of Autobiographical Comics." Aaron Scott Humphrey, University of Adelaide​
6.30 PM Reception and Artist's Alley For non-conference goers, ​RSVP here. ​
  • Reception catered by the Musqueam catering company Salishan Catering, a small Artists' Alley with local and Indigenous comics artists. 
  • Exhibition of student work from the UBC Creative Writing Program.
7:30 - 9:00 PM: ARTIST TALK - Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
​Robson Square (800 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1A7)
Moderated by Nicola Levell, University of British Columbia
SATURDAY, APRIL 22
9:00 - 10:15 AM: CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 8
Panel 8a: Forms of Borders, Forms of Language
The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees
Moderated by Brannon Costello, Louisiana State University

  • “The In-Between Spaces of the Migrant City in Fabien Toulmé’s Hakim’s Odyssey.”
    Candida Rifkind, University of Winnipeg​
  • "The Black detective in France." Claire Allison, University of Glasgow
  • "Breaking the Conventions: Onomatopoeia in Manga and Its Art of Incongruity." Teppei Fukuda​, University of Oregon
Panel 8b: Comics Witness
Case Room 132, Liu Institute​
​Moderated by Arturo Meijide Lapido, St. Ambrose University
​
  • "Munnu’s Deliberate Lines: Brutal Killing and Embodiment of Kashmiri Suffering." Shreya Sangai, York University
  • "The Iterable and the Irrevocable: Thematizing the Frames of Human Rights Abuses in Comics Journalism." Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, University of Oregon
  • "Re-readings and Re-drawings in Colombia: Representations of Violence Against Indigenous People on The Vortex: Graphic Novel by Oscar Pantoja’s and Jose Luis Jiménez." Camila Núñez-Bergsneider, University of Iowa
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM CONCURRENT PANEL SESSION 9
Panel 9a: Critical Histories in Visual Form
The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees
​
​Moderated by Joshua Kopin, Thomas Jefferson University

  • "Visualizing History: Exploring the representation of history in Taiwanese Comics - Creative Comic Collection." Huai-jhen Wu, National Cheng Kung University
  • "OUP’s Graphic History Series." Rachel Kunert-Graf, Antioch University​​​​
Panel 9b: Mesoamerican Codices, Mesoamerican Representations
Case Room 132, Liu Institute​
Moderated by Brittany Tullis, St. Ambrose University
​
  • "Namor as Mesoamerican Superhero in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado, Baruch College, CUNY
  • "Comics, Codices, and Com-diversity: Using Duncan Tonatiuh’s Undocumented to Explore Colonial Writing Prejudices." Rob Watkins, Idaho State University
  • "'Is it comics?': Looking at Mexican Colonial-era Manuscripts through a Comics Lens." eden jones, University of Iowa​
12 PM - 1:30 PM: LUNCH BREAK

1:30 - 2:45 PM ARTIST TALK - Ebony Flowers and Meghan Parker in Conversation
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2

3:00 PM - 4:15 PM: COMICS WORKSHOP with Ebony Flowers
Location: The xʷθəθiqətəm or Place of Many Trees at the UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Dr, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Return to ICAF 2023 Conference Information