[Comicsstudiessociety] [EXTERNAL] Re: Decolonising Comics Studies

Wed Jul 31 16:30:41 EDT 2019

As someone who studies and writes about Latin/x American comics, I share
these concerns and would also like to see the field embrace the study of
comics from other countries/traditions/languages more fully. As Charles
notes, this is something that conference organizers can work towards (ICAF,
I would note, has had the study of international comics at the core of what
we do since 1995 - if you're interested in these issues and haven't ever
been to or presented at the conference, I'd encourage you to submit a
proposal the next time we send out a call). CSS, as Charles notes, also
included a number of panels at Ryerson that worked towards this goal of
decolonizing the field.

In order for this kind of inclusion to be meaningful, however, there must
be a commitment on the part of those of you who study anglophone or
francophone or manga comics to engage with the scholars and scholarship
that do this. These kinds of panels are almost always among the most
lightly attended, probably because folks aren't reading and teaching the
comics that are being discussed.

Perhaps what the field needs is for people to start reading and teaching
more comics beyond the categories that you mention, Phil. Collaborating
with (or even simply asking questions of) scholars who speak other
languages and reading and citing English-language scholarship about comics
in other languages are two great ways to begin, and I appreciate you
encouraging our intellectual community to do so.

For my part, if anyone has any interest in any Spanish-language comics that
have been translated into English - or US Latinx titles originally
published in English - either for your own reading or for teaching
purposes, I'd be happy to start working on a list to share with our members.

Best,
Brittany

Brittany Tullis, PhD
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
St. Ambrose University
Academic Director, International Comic Arts Forum
http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org
2nd Vice President, Comics Studies Society
http://comicssociety.org
Fulbright Program Advisor/Scholar Liaison
https://us.fulbrightonline.org
Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Advisor
https://www.iie.org/programs/gilman-scholarship-program

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 12:03 PM Charles Hatfield via ComicsStudiesSociety <
comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Phil,
>
> Thank you for raising this issue, following up on the urgent questions
> posed by Nina Mickwitz's excellent presentation last Saturday. I especially
> appreciate the concreteness and pragmatism of your recommendations (Nina
> had asked, in effect, *What can we actually do?*). As it happens, I have
> begun raising this issue with CSS officers in the hopes that the Society
> will take concrete steps toward decolonial and more fully inclusive
> programming as a regular practice. There will surely be practical hurdles
> to the implementation of such changes, but together we as a society can
> work to overleap those obstacles.
>
> COMICS/POLITICS provided a number of good examples of what decolonial
> conference programming can look like: e.g., the Indigenous Comics panel
> last Thursday; the roundtable on feminist comics of the Baltic Sea region
> on Saturday. I hope every year's CSS conference will include such
> programming, allied where possible to journal symposia or other publication
> projects. Further, I hope that Phil's wise suggestions can be encouraged
> and implemented through such programming.
>
> CH
>
> On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 8:12 AM Gardner, Jared via ComicsStudiesSociety <
> comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
>
>> *For reasons I am still trying to figure out, Phil’s message has been
>> getting bounced by the listserv’s ghost in the machine. While I attempt to
>> expel the gremlins, I wanted to pass the message on to the list for
>> discussion:*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *Philip Smith <philipsmithgraduate at googlemail.com>
>> *Subject: **Decolonising Comics Studies*
>> *Date: *July 29, 2019 at 11:23:16 AM EDT
>> *To: *<comicsstudiessociety at lists.osu.edu>
>>
>>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> Thank you all for a wonderful conference. I had a fantastic time and came
>> home full of ideas for my teaching and research.
>>
>> One presentation which gave me a lot of food for thought was Dr.
>> Mickwitz’s call to decolonise Comics Studies by looking to works beyond
>> anglophone comics, francophone comics, and manga. There have, of course,
>> been studies which address comics from beyond these areas (indeed, John
>> Lent has built a career out of mapping, and facilitating the mapping of,
>> the world of comics), but, as Dr. Mickwitz argues, comics in English,
>> French, and Japanese tend to occupy most of our attention. There was some
>> discussion after the talk but, as always, the conversation could have
>> continued. I share below some of the ideas which have been percolating for
>> me:
>>
>> - Learning a second language is rewarding but may be too large a task for
>> many of us. We can, however, find works which have been translated, hire
>> translators, or study works in English, French, or Japanese from beyond
>> North America,  Europe and Japan - Singapore and many countries in the
>> Caribbean and Africa, for example, have English and English dialects as
>> official languages.
>> - We can collaborate with scholars who speak other languages.
>> - When preparing CFPs for conferences, special issues, and books we can
>> ask for papers on works which are not anglophone comics, francophone
>> comics, or manga and prioritise submissions which meet that criteria.
>> - We can read and cite English-language works by scholars who study
>> comics in other languages.
>> - English-language Comics Studies journals could offer authors the option
>> to publish translated versions of their papers on the journal website in
>> addition to versions in English.
>> - Academic presses could publish comics and academic works about comics
>> in translation.
>>
>> I believe that the process of decolonising Comics Studies should be done
>> with care and respect, ensuring that we approach these works ready to learn
>> and aware of the gaps in our own knowledge. We should prioritise
>> collaborating with and listening to colleagues and creators from overseas.
>>
>> I would be interested to hear from colleagues (and in particular those
>> who study works in languages other than English, French, and Japanese)
>> other ideas as to how we can expand the range of works which we, as a body
>> of scholars, give our critical attention.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Phil
>>
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