John A. Lent Scholarship in Comics Studies
The ICAF Executive Committee is pleased to hold 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.)
The Scholarship is subject to the condition that the recipient present a half-hour talk, based on their research, during ICAF. The award will consist of hotel accommodations for the duration of ICAF (that is, three nights’ hotel) at ICAF’s expense. A commemorative letter and plaque will also be awarded.
Applicants must be students, or must show acceptance into an academic program, at the time of application. For example, applicants for ICAF 2008 must show proof of student status for the academic year 2007-2008, or proof that they have been accepted into an academic program for the academic year 2008-2009.
The Scholarship competition will be adjudicated by a three-person committee chosen from among the members of ICAF’s Executive Committee. Applications should consist of:
- A self-contained excerpt from the project in question, not to exceed twenty (20) double-spaced pages of typescript.
- A brief cover letter, introducing the applicant and explaining the nature of the project.
- The applicant’s professional resume.
- A letter of reference, on school letterhead, from a teacher or academic advisor (preferably thesis director), establishing the applicant’s student status and speaking to her/his qualifications as a researcher and presenter.
Please note that applications for the Lent Scholarship are handled entirely separately from ICAF’s general Call for Papers. Students who submit abstracts for the CFP are invited to apply separately for the Lent Award.
Prospective applicants should watch this space for announcements about future John A. Lent scholarship competitions.
Dr. John A. Lent is one of the leading proponents of the international study of comics, and of comics research within academia. Having lectured and taught on comics and mass communications all over the world, Dr. Lent is recognized as an authority, and vital resource, in the field of comics study; he has had an incalculable impact on the lives of students, fellow scholars, and comics creators worldwide.
Dr. Lent’s academic teaching career spans 45 years, during which he has served as mentor to countless students, as well as founder, editor, co-editor, or regular contributor to numerous journals. Along the way Dr. Lent has authored hundreds of articles and authored or edited 61 books, among them Pulp Demons, Themes and Issues in Asian Cartooning, Cartooning in Latin America, Cartooning in Africa, and ten volumes on comic art bibliography. He is founding editor of the International Journal of Comic Art and founding chair of both the "Asian Popular Culture" area of the Popular Culture Association and the Comic Art Working Group of the International Association for Mass Communication Research. Dr. Lent is also renowned as an expert on Asian popular culture: he is editor of the journal Asian Cinema and chair of the Asian Cinema Studies Society, and for 26 years was editor of Berita (which he started). In addition, he founded the Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies.
Given Dr. Lent’s extraordinary record as a teacher, ICAF is proud to offer the annual Lent Scholarship to support outstanding student work on comics. This scholarship award falls well within ICAF’s mission, which includes encouraging a multidisciplinary and pluralistic approach to comics study and providing a showcase for groundbreaking scholarship. The Lent Scholarship dovetails perfectly with our goals, and, conversely, ICAF offers the perfect context for such an award.
