[Comicsstudiessociety] Graphic history of human rights and human rights education program

[Christian Clark]

Dear Colleagues,



I recently joined the Comics Studies Society and find it an incredibly inspiring community. I am currently working on a graphic history of human rights and concomitant human rights education program. My background includes two Emmy awards for writing for Sesame Street, I am a former UNICEF project director of the Meena Communication Initiative (MCI) - a $6 million South Asian cartoon child rights education program and have written and/or illustrated three graphic histories including the 2017 UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War. Both Sesame Street and the MCI are classic examples of the power of the entertainment-education communication approach which uses both entertainment and education to engender individual and social change.



Currently I have on board the project a variety of content experts including Professors of human rights at reputed universities (as opposed to institutions of ill repute!) in North America and Europe and are looking to work with academia in other continents. We have also been working closely with one of the world’s largest Human Rights Museums, as well as through one of the world’s premier Human Rights organizations. We recently shared a survey (in Spanish, French and English) through their global youth activist network to try to understand how best to cultivate a new area of learning for human rights and social change based on graphic history books, comics, animation, podcasts, and online platforms for engagement and activation.



We want now to share the survey more widely, including through this network. To be frank I am having problems getting the “pitch” right for a survey for an academic audience. I attach a draft of the survey - I think you will agree it would go down like a lead balloon for many academics. FYI this project is specifically aimed at a younger demographic of 13 – 23 year olds, in high schools and beyond, as well as an academic and human rights advocate audience, in both the global north and south. If successful we have plans to do other “comic” projects on issues such as climate change and racial discrimination, with rigorous research underpinning all work.


I have been speaking to different universities as I would love to see initiatives like these firmly “embedded” in academia. A great example of this is the amazing comics NGO PositiveNegatives https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://positivenegatives.org__;!!KGKeukY!kDBbxJxiTFiIK10a4unaI_l5MNa57oFuaDViGxDcvM34A6hwRv6XK06gen8n3xgU7l1jA-Kla0S4$  run out of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Well worth checking out.


I would love to hear from members of this community who have worked on surveys like this, who have been involved in comics projects for social change like this and/or anybody interested in this kind of initiative. To make this a success I have a sense this is the community I need to engage with. My email is true_north at hotmail.com<mailto:true_north at hotmail.com>. I look forward to hearing from some of you and working with all of you in our common endeavour.



I attach some cartoons I did in the 1980s to prove my bonifides.


With thanks


Christian

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