CFP: Ethics Under Cover: Comics, Medicine and Society (Feb. 22; Jul. 5-7)

4th International Conference

of Comics and Medicine

Ethics Under Cover:

Comics, Medicine and Society
5th-7th July 2013
Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Brighton and Sussex Medical School in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust and Graphic Medicine invites papers for the fourth international conference on Comics and Medicine. Previous meetings have been held in London, Chicago and Toronto (more information at www.graphicmedicine.org).

This interdisciplinary conference intends to appeal to a wide audience, including healthcare professionals, comics creators, students, academic scholars, comics enthusiasts, and various stakeholder groups. The meeting will consist of a mix of peer reviewed academic papers, lectures and workshops. There will also be an exhibition and stalls for participants’ work.

We invite proposals for scholarly papers (15-20 minutes) or panel discussions (60 minutes) focusing on medicine and comics in any form (e.g. graphic novels, comic strips, graphic pathographies, bande dessinées, manga, and/or web comics). The theme of this year’s conference means we are interested in work with an ethical flavour. In particular, we seek presentations on:

• Ethics under cover (i.e. how ethical issues are tackled under the surface of graphic works)
• Illness narrative and the comic form
• Balancing humour and respect in comics about illness and disability
• Comics as resistance to the biomedical mainstream
• Comics as a way of seeing and representing illness and the role of healthcare professionals
• Comics in practitioner research and as a method of reflection
• Comics in cross-disciplinary education as both subject and tool
• Comics in literature, medicine and the bioethics classroom
• Comics within different healthcare systems
• European and international perspectives on graphic medicine and the scope for cross cultural analysis

We also welcome workshops (120 minutes). These are intended to be “hands-on” interactive workshops for participants who wish to obtain particular skills with regard to comics and medicine. Suggested subjects for workshops are:

• Creating comics
• Understanding, reviewing and critiquing comics
• Getting comics published
• Teaching and learning with comics
  

Proposals may be in Word, PDF, or RTF formats with the following information in this order:

• author(s)
• affiliation
• email address
• title of abstract
• body of abstract
• Sample images or weblinks to work being discussed

Please identify your presentation preference:

• oral presentation
• panel discussion
• workshop 

Please also specify equipment you might need (e.g. AV projection, whiteboard, easel, etc.)

300-word proposals should be submitted online by Friday, 22nd February 2013 to submissions@graphicmedicine.org

Abstracts will be peer-reviewed by an interdisciplinary selection committee. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be completed by 15th March 2013. While we cannot guarantee that presenters will receive their first choice of presentation format, we will attempt to honour people’s preferences, and we will acknowledge the receipt of all proposals submitted. Please note: Presenters are responsible for session expenses (e.g. handouts) and personal expenses (travel, hotel, and meeting registration fees). All presenters must register for the conference (maximum registration fee will be £70 or approximately US $115). Also see the CFP at the conference website.