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…
The Apocalypse Isn’t The End of the World: Ragnarök and Reading Comics Narratives
After the initial media head-scratching about the announced title “Thor 3: Ragnarok,” people have latched on to the idea that the 2016 Thor movie will be about the end of the world. As a religion scholar, I have a hundred things to say about this! I’ll give you a few pointers for watching the end…
Katherine Tanski’s Teaching Comics Part 2: The Amazing Spider-Man
This is part two of my retrospective/nostalgia journey through my time as a graduate student teaching comics in the “early days.” Part one, my love letter to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics can be found here.
Comics Academe: How Do You Teach Comics?
This post is the first of two Comics Academe pieces from guest writer Katherine Tanski — I’d introduce her fully, but she does a good job of that for herself. My name is Kate, and I’m a recovering academic. Like all good recovering academics, I feel the need to share my experiences and impart (what I…
The Tangled Relationship Between Religion and Comics (Part Two)
In part one of this tangle, I talked about four ways I conceive of the relationship between comics and religion: comics as religion, comics in religion, religion in comics, and religion and comics in dialogue. In this month’s installation, I’ll give you second two categories (religion in comics and religion and comics in dialogue)—but be…
The Tangled Relationship Between Comics and Religion (Part One)
My cocktail party introduction of myself is basically, “I’m a religion scholar working on a dissertation that uses a comics to interpret religious text.” Maybe it’s not the smoothest handshake, but it’s a place to start. When I tell people this, I occasionally get quizzical looks from strangers who wonder how comics relate to religion…
A Tale of Comics Academe in a History Department: An Interview with Professor Julian Chambliss
Professor Julian Chambliss’s true origin remains shrouded in mystery but his LinkedIn page tells us that he has been a professor at Rollins College in Florida since 2003. In an interview by Chris Rawlins, Chambliss recounted his first experience teaching with comic books in 2006. As an editor and contributor for a recent compilation of research…
Review: Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present
Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present promises to be a bit more than it ever could be, while succeeding in being a bit more than one would expect it to be.
Stories from Comics Academe: The Culture of Production in Marvel’s Media Franchises
On May 1, 2014, I attended Derek Johnson’s lecture, “My Hero?: The Practices and Politics of Sharing Worlds in Marvel’s Media Franchises” presented by the University of California at Irvine Humanities Collective. Johnson is a professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who researches identity and hierarchy in the production of…
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…