CFP ASLE 2017: Comics, Graphic Novels, and the Environment (June 20-24 2017, Detroit)
deadline for submissions:
November 25, 2016
full name / name of organization:
Juan Meneses, UNC Charlotte
contact email:
juan.meneses@uncc.edu
This panel for the next ASLE conference seeks to offer a range of explorations of environmental and ecological themes in comics and graphic novels. Whereas the conference’s “Rust/Resistance” special topic (http://www.asle.org/wp-content/uploads/ASLE-2017-CFP.pdf) should provide cohesion to the panel, papers that expand the study of comics and graphic novels from any environmental lens are also welcome. Among others, the panel will be concerned with several questions, such as: What particular forms of visualization do comics and graphic novels offer us as conduits to imagine the environment? What specific narrative forms in the medium such as the sequence, the gutter, or the panel must be explored in considering the ways in which we can tackle environmental issues? In what specific ways can the “worlding” capacities of comics and graphic novels be understood in environmental terms? What approaches to comics might be most relevant to environmental studies and, conversely, what environmental approaches might be most productive for the study of comics? How are agendas of environmental resistance specifically articulated in the medium of comics and graphic novels?
Papers that explore these and related questions while focusing on particular works will be given priority.
Submissions are invited to explore a range of topics including, though not limited to, the following:
Environmental justice and social movements
Industrialization and modernity
Comparative and planetary reflections
Environmental and natural disasters
Climate change
Inhabitance
Energy
Material culture
Pollution
Modernity and technological advancements
The Anthropocene
Bioregionalism
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narratives
Animal studies
Food
The weather
Graphic journalism
Science fiction
Eco-terrorism
Poverty
Agriculture
Landscapes
Water studies
Resources and infrastructures
Biopolitics
Geographical developments
Post-humanism
New media
Please send a 300-word abstract and short bio to juan.meneses@uncc.edu by November 25, 2016.