Comics @ CUNY: Panel Convo, October 9

Comics @ CUNY: Exploring the Role of Comic Books in Teaching and Research
Date: Thursday, October 9, 10-11:30 AM
Location: CUNY Graduate Center — Room C197
Registration link: http://goo.gl/z18Jy4

Dykes_to_Watch_Out_For_(Bechdel_test_origin)

Portion of “The Rule” in Dykes to Watch Out For sourced from this image on Bechdel’s Flickr. Comic and issue by Alison Bechdel, circa 1985.

In this panel, CUNY scholars and professors will discuss how they have utilized mainstream superhero comics as well as other graphic narratives and memoirs in teaching students about writing, identities, literacies, art and language, as well as introduce their research on comic books and manga. Stop by and meet CUNY colleagues who share your interest in working with comic books.

Presenters:

  • Stafford Grégoire (Assistant Professor of English, LaGuardia Community College) earned his Baccalaureate at Hunter College (1992) and his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley (May 2004). He uses comic books, graphic novels and other visually inflected literature to teach composition.
  • Maggie Galvan (PhD candidate in English at The Graduate Center, City University of New York) Forthcoming work includes “From Kitty to Cat: Kitty Pryde and the Phases of Feminism,” a chapter in the book, The Ages of The X-Men (McFarland, 2014) and “Thinking through Thea: Alison Bechdel’s Representations of Disability,” a chapter in the book, Feats of Clay: Disability and Graphic Narrative (Palgrave Macmillan). Ms. Galvan  will discuss how archives of comics are essential to the teaching of comics through a short discussion of The Rise of Graphic Archives course that she taught (at NYU in Spring 2014) and how the space of the archive figures in her own work on comics and visual culture.
  • Jonathan W. Gray (Associate Professor of English, John Jay College) specializes in African American Literature and American Literature and culture from WWII to the present. His current book project, Illustrating the Race: Representing Blackness in American Comics, investigates how twin notions of illustration-the creative act of depiction and the political act of bringing something to the public’s attention-function in the comic books and graphic novels published since the Black Panther made his debut in 1966 in Fantastic Four #52. Dr. Gray will present on teaching the first graduate course devoted to Comics and Graphic Novels at the CUNY Graduate Center.
  • Geoff Klock (Assistant Professor of English, Borough of Manhattan Community College) is author of How to Read Superhero Comics and Why, Imaginary Biographies: Misreading the Loves of the Poets, and the upcoming The Future of Comics, The Future of Men: Matt Fraction’s Casanova. He spoke at the Met, got a grant to study Kill Bill, and made a Hamlet video that got 38,000 views on YouTube. He is on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and you should go find him there.

Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/738292936241913

Event contacts: Ann Matsuuchi (amatsuuchi@lagcc.cuny.edu) and Steven Ovadia (sovadia@lagcc.cuny.edu)

About the Author

Jill Cirasella is the Scholarly Communication Librarian and University Liaison at the CUNY Graduate Center.