The 2023 Joint Conference of the International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference and the International Bande Dessinée Society
University of Cambridge and Online
3-7 July 2023
Better Living Through Comics
A collaboration of the International Bande Dessinée Society and the International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference.
Hosted by University of Cambridge in association with Studies in Comics (Intellect) and the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Routledge).
REGISTRATION FOR 2023 IS NOW OPEN
2023 Conference Information
Do comics have a role to play in wellbeing?
We find ourselves reeling from a prolonged global period of illness and nervous about a future threatened by climate change. In this moment, we find ourselves prioritizing that which makes us happy, healthy, strong, and connected to one another—and reflecting on those phenomena that can impede these goals.
What role do comics play in literacy, science education, joy, community building, sexual discovery, hobbies, entrepreneurship, religion, citizenship, self-expression, and all the other aspects of good living around the world? What role do they play in the prevention of these same vital aspects of living well?
This event will explore aspects of comics and wellbeing, including…
• Debates about the destructive potential of comics’ influence on youth
• How communities (scholarly and otherwise) built around comics have a role to play in wellbeing
• The pleasures and acrimonies of collaboration in comics
• Lifewriting as a form of self-care
• Exploitation of talent by publishers
• Coloniality, anticoloniality, and/or postcolonialism
• Creation of talent-friendly publishing innovations
• Speculation as opposed to or part of pleasure in collecting comics
• Diaspora and community healing, formation, and memory
• The Anthropocene and environmental justice
• Establishing an ethics of care and shaping solidarity
• Exhibits as spaces for private and public pleasure and connection
• Representations that challenge, strengthen, or complicate stereotypes
• Interdisciplinary approaches that build connections between researchers…or that fail to do so.
• Cross-cultural or glocal perspectives on authorship, collaboration, and readership
• Adaptation, appropriation, and who owns comics
• Creative practices of therapy
We will also have room within our programme, as always, for papers, workshops, and roundtables that do not fit this specific theme.
IGNCC is committed to providing an inclusive and safe conference experience for all, please click here to download our Code of Conduct.
For questions on the 2023 event please email comics23@educ.cam.ac.uk.
For alternative queries, please reach out to us at TheIGNCC@gmail.com.
www.IGNCC.com
