The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Art as Applied to Medicine in collaboration with Graphic Medicine invites papers for the fifth Comics & Medicine conference, a gathering of healthcare professionals, artists, academic scholars, comics enthusiasts, students, and various stakeholder groups. Stay tuned for information on conference registration by subscribing to this site at the link on the top right of the homepage.

Download the call for papers here.

Theme

The theme of this year’s conference, From Private Lives to Public Health, aims to highlight the relationship between comics, personal health narratives, and public health issues such as barriers to healthcare and the stigma of illness. We invite the submission of a wide variety of abstracts focusing on medicine and comics in any form (e.g. graphic novels, comic strips, manga, web comics) including:

• the relationship between comics, personal health narratives, and public health issues
• comics in practitioner research and as a method of reflection
• the use of comics in medical education and illustration
• the role of graphic pathographies in depicting illness and disability from the perspective of patients and caregivers
• the application of communication theories to comics in patient communication and public health campaigns
• comics as a means of representing the role of healthcare professionals and communicating medicine and the health sciences to the public
• the role of comics in provider/patient communication
• ethical implications of creating comics for patients and the general public
• trends in, and history of, the use of comics in healthcare and public health initiatives
• the interface of graphic medicine and popular culture

Formats

• Lightning talks: 5-minute presentations with up to 15 slides. This new format is meant to encourage submission of short presentations to share your work (e.g. comics, new research projects, new ideas) in a concise format.
• Oral presentations: 15- to 20-minute presentations.
• Panel discussions: 90-minute interviews or presentations by a panel of speakers
• Workshops: 90-minute sessions 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

Submission Process

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:

• lightning talk
• oral presentation
• panel discussion
• workshop

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We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors:

The Department of Art as Applied to Medicine,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

The Division of Interventional Neuroradiology,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Office of Cultural Affairs,
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Small Press Exposition (SPX)

Brighton and Sussex Medical School

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Excerpts © 2012 Ellen Forney, from her graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me