I am more than a fan of comics. I have made them my career, and I advocate for their importance any chance I get. One of the major reasons why I do so is because of the impact comics have had on me as a dyslexic woman, as well as the potential they have to…
Focus on Comics Scholarship: an interview with Frederik Byrn Køhlert
Routledge will be publishing a series of scholarly texts on “Gender, Sexuality and Comics Studies,” as part of its Focus Collection, which offers quick publication of peer-reviewed work, of a length generally associated with a too-long chapter, or too-short monograph: 20,000 to 50,000 words including notes and references. The editor for the Gender, Sexuality and…
Academic Conference Asks: What Makes Women Monstrous?
Women are often called monsters. Even before the internet made trolling a favorite misogynist past time, women’s bodies, functions, and perceptions have been fair game for name calling. I joined a wonderful group of scholars to discuss what after all is so “monstrous” about women at the Monstrous Women Conference this last May in at…
Interview: Sequentials, a New “Comics” Journal
As part of Comics Academe, one of the things I want to do is to promote what’s happening in academia and comics studies–especially when what’s happening is something that is innovative, or challenges what academic “scholarship” can be. When I first heard about Sequentials, a new comics “journal” being put out by the incredible English…
The Unbearable Whiteness of Being (in Comics Academia)
June 2015. The run-up to my first conference abroad as an official comics scholar — and I don’t want to go. I’m panic-crying after reading a chain of emails which, on the face of it, have little to do with me. Short background: we were supposed to have a panel on Charlie Hebdo. A month before…
Comics Academe: Teaching Ms. Marvel – Part One
Last semester I taught the first volume of Ms. Marvel in my honor’s multicultural literature class. Ms. Marvel was perfect for my class, which centered on how minorities used fantastic fiction to show disfranchisement and how old tropes become new when filtered through a different perspective. Superman and Batman are iconic, and that’s a lot…
Comics Academe: How To Write a Comics Dissertation
Out there, somewhere, is a woman who writes about comics who wants to turn that writing to a comics dissertation or thesis, or at least I sure hope there is! The field is wide open and ready for more. For the uninitiated, a dissertation or thesis is the long essay or project that serves as…
A (Re) Introduction to Comics Academe and Call for Submissions
A little over six months ago, I was approached by the fantastic WWAC editorial team about bringing back Comics Academe. Comics Academe was how I came to be a part of this amazing team of women writing about comics, and I am so appreciative for the opportunity to invite more women who are or have been…
“This is Halloween!”: A History of Halloween, Part 2
The Mad Historian returns in Part 2 of “This is Halloween!” a two-part series that looks into the history of Halloween traditions, symbols, and more. Part 2 is a quick and dirty look at a few specifically American Halloween tradition for those history-loving folks who are intrigued by Halloween’s convoluted past. For an overview of how…
“This is Halloween!”: A History, Part 1
In this special article, Ginnis sought out a historian to reveal some of the secrets behind the history of this great season. Fortunately, she discovered a “Mad Historian” who takes a perverse pleasure in tackling the maddeningly mundane questions that plague so many of us like “How did Halloween come to be?” In Part 1 of this two…
“Feminist, Unruly, Cheerfully Monstrous”: Highlight on Dodie Bellamy
Mostly, Dodie Bellamy doesn’t care what you think of her writing. Or, that’s not quite right—she thinks that you should respect her writing for reasons that you’re maybe unused to respecting writing for. She wants you to question what is respectable in literature.
Dispatches From Academia: Where’s The Nerd Party?
If, like me, you hate failing at anything, academia is a tough place to be. When I got accepted for a PhD in comics research, I genuinely envisioned a three-year nerd party where I could enthuse about overanalyzing comics to my heart’s content. The research process would be challenging but rewarding. My amazing skills would…