The Major, or Motoko Kusanagi, is the protagonist of each incarnation of the Ghost in the Shell manga-anime-merchadise franchise. If you care to google, Motoko Kusanagi is autocompletes to “a man” and “is hot,” then “in bed with a boy” and “in bed.” For a science-fiction philosophy character named for her military position, we (the audience —…
Academic Secret Identities: Being She-Hulk or Batgirl
Elizabeth Coody is back with her second guest post for Comics Academe! Pitching and drafting this before the Goyer commentary made waves, Elizabeth’s looking at She-Hulk from the perspective that makes most sense to her. Find Elizabeth’s previous Comics Academe entry Christianity, Comics, and the Classroom here, and enjoy the applied fandom below!
Stories from Comics Academe: Visualizing a Story of Cancer’s Culture
What Graphic Novels Tell Us About Cancer Care, Greedy Stories, and the Ethnographic Method On April 30, 2014, I attended a lecture at Soka University in California entitled “What Graphic Novels Tell Us About Cancer Care, Greedy Stories, and the Ethnographic Method” by Juliet McMullin, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Riverside. Among…
Comics Academe: Christianity, Comics, and the Classroom
Comics! Academics! The Bible?! When I tell people I study the Bible and comics, I never quite know how they’re going to take it. Will they be more offended by the Bible part or the comics part? In my North American context, many people conflate the Bible and its intense study with very conservative Christianity, but…
An introduction to comics academia in the form of a letter to my past self
Dear Past Amanda (upon your graduation from high school), Hang on to your hat! Setting aside the fact that these are all spoilers, let me tell you what’s going to happen next: You’re going to live in a castle (what?!) and during your extensive trawling of the internet, you’ll find out about these things that are today…
Comics Academe: Imposter Syndrome! I Have No Idea What I’m Doing
I wish I could be the type of brilliant academic that feels motivated by the muse, the type that drinks red wine during the day, writing down all of her inspired thoughts in a leather bound journal. Basically Olivia Pope getting her doctorate. I am sure this brilliant academic superhero exists somewhere; she probably did…
