The University of Nottingham and Nottingham Contemporary are pleased to announce this half‐day symposium, exploring representations of the body within contemporary comics and the graphic arts.
Including three keynote addresses, displays from a range of participants, and a concluding roundtable discussion, the discussion will be wide‐ranging, drawing in a range of cognate disciplines, including but not limited to comics studies, the medical humanities, gender studies,literary criticism, critical theory and art history.
Call for displays
Making use of the unique architecture of the Nottingham Contemporary building, space will be provided for participants to display posters, artefacts and digital projects including both creative outputs in the comics medium and information about academic research projects. If you would like to have your creative and/or critical work included, please contact Dr. Matt Green: matt.green@nottingham.ac.uk by Monday April 30th.
Keynote speakers
We are pleased to welcome three of the most acclaimed new graphic novelists working in Britain today: Karrie Fransman, Nicola Streeten and Mary Talbot.
Karrie Fransman: With work published previously in The Times and The Guardian, Karrie’s new graphic novel, The House that Groaned, explores bodies and the spaces they inhabit in a manner that dexterously interweaves, explores bodies and the spaces they inhabit in a manner that dexterously interweaves humour, pathos and the macabre.
Nicola Streeten: Co‐founder of both the Beacon art project and Laydeez do Comics, Nicola’s graphic memoir Billy, Me &You, redefines the parameters of the medium, providing a harrowing, yet compelling and at times very funny account of grief and recovery.
Dr. Mary Talbot: An internationally renowned scholar who has published widely on language, gender and power, Mary is the author of Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, illustrated by Bryan Talbot, which delves into social expectations, gender politics, and thwarted ambitions through an interweaving of personal memoir with the tragic biography of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce.
Registration
Admission is free but booking is required. Online registration will be available closer to the event date via the Nottingham Contemporary website.
Pre‐registration is recommended: email matt.green@nottingham.ac.uk. Lunch will be provided for the first twenty attendees who pre‐register.
The symposium has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Nottingham Contemporary together with the School of English and the Centre for Advanced Study at the University of Nottingham.