Comics & Medicine: The Sequential Art of Illness
June 9-11, 2011 – Chicago, IL
Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
This second international interdisciplinary conference explored the past, present, and possible future of comics in the context of the healthcare experience.
“The coolest conference on earth.” –Rinko Endo
read the New York Times story on the conference.
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The conference opened with an exhibit of comic art being used in medicine.
Conference Keynote speakers were:
David Small
Phoebe Gloeckner
Paul Gravett
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The conference featured presentations by thirty panelists discussing ways they are using comics in medicine.
Photos from the conference can be viewed here.
The conference featured workshops by Neil Phillips, Brian Fies (you can watch portions on Brian’s blog at that link) and Sarah Leavitt.
The conference concluded with a free public lecture and Q&A by Scott McCloud
Ian Williams’ blog post about the conference can be read here.
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This event was co-sponsored by the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the Department of Humanities at Penn State College of Medicine, and the Science, Technology and Society Program of Penn State University, and was supported by a grant from Jean Schulz.
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CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
THURSDAY JUNE 9, 2011
Welcome reception & Graphic Medicine Conference art exhibit
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 2011
Registration, Continental Breakfast, and Book Sales
Welcome and Opening Remarks,
Michael Green, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine
The History of Graphic Medicine: Keynote address by Paul Gravett
audio available here
Anatomy of a Cartoonist: Keynote address by Phoebe Gloeckner
audio available here
Panel 1: Comics in Medical Education
Moderated by Katie Watson
The Use of Comics in Medical Education
Kavita Vakharia, Mary Anne Carrillo and
Michael Green, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine
Resisting Closure: Graphic Texts and the Search for a Good Ending
Linda Raphael,George Washington University School of Medicine
Loosening the Grip: Use of Cartoons in a Medical Textbook
Stuart Copans, Dartmouth Medical School
Panel 2: Young Adult Health in Comics
Moderated by Ian Williams
Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf: Sex Ed Comics in the Medical Humanities
Susan Squier, Penn State University
Using Spiritual Resources to Deal with Psychic & Physical Suffering
Peter Stringham, retired physician, cartoonist
The Confrontation of Mortality Through Image and Text
Andrew Rostan, independent graphic novelist
Workshop 1: Neil Phillips
Mental Health: Cartoons, Comics, and Communication
audio available here
Panel 3: Graphic Memoirs & Psychic Pain
Moderated by Susan Squier
Challenging the Idea of Optimism:
Miriam Engelberg’s Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person
Sharon O’Brien, Dickinson College (via Susan Squier)
The Space in and of Comics: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
and Graphic Narrative Autobiography
Hillary Chute, University of Chicago
The Next Day: Drawing from Interviews with Suicide Survivors
John Porcellino, independent comic artist
Panel 4: Bearing Witness to Illness
Moderated by Michael Green
Compassion vs. Rage: The Comics of Dr. Thom Ferrier
Ian Williams, editor, graphicmedicine.org, independent cartoonist
North Wales, UK
audio available here
What it’s Like: Articulating Parkinson’s Disease
Through Visual Narrative
Shelley Wall, University of Toronto
audio available here
From Sketchbook to Graphic Memoir:
Documenting a Family’s Struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease
Sarah Leavitt, cartoonist, editor, Vancouver
audio available here
Workshop 2: Brian Fies:
Making Comics: See One, Do One, Teach One
discussion and video available here
The Voice of the Eye: Keynote address by David Small
audio available here
Reception and Stitches signing by David Small
SATURDAY JUNE 11, 2011
Continental Breakfast, Book Sales
Panel 5: Picturing Disability
Moderator: Brian Fies
Depictions of Medical Spaces and Disabilities
Miriam Zander, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Graphic Witness: Doonesbury and Traumatic Brain Injury
MK Czerwiec, Northwestern University
Debjani Mukherjee, Northwestern University
Panel 6: Imagining the Body
Moderated by Ian Williams
The Aesthetics of Dissection: Diagrams in Medicine and Comics
Chris Lanier, Sierra Nevada College
Bodies in the Gutter: Reviewing Medical Ethics, and
Aesthetics in A Child’s Life, Spiral Cage, and Cuckoo
Theresa Tensuan, Haverford College
Gross, Gruesome, and Graphic: Comics and Biomedical Horror
Catherine Belling, Northwestern University, Feinberg College of
Medicine
Panel 7: David B.’s Epileptic
Moderated by Paul Gravett
A Sibling’s Experience of Loss in Epileptic
Esther Saltzman, University of Memphis
Graphic Heterotropias: Treating Epilepsy in L’Ascension du Haut-Mal
Lisa Diedrich, Stony Brook University
Panel 8: Health Care Reform as Comics:
What it is, Why it’s Necessary, How it Works
Moderated by Martha Cornog, Library Journal
Thomas LeBien, publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
James Bucky Carter, University of Texas at El Paso
Vineet Arora, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Ethan Persoff, Comics With Problems
R. Toby Greenwalt, Skokie Public Library
Panel 9: Two Takes on a Text
Moderated by Brian Fies
Cancer, Culture, and Community: Telling Stories, Building Community
Craig Martin, Purdue University Galleries
His Cancer Year: Harvey Pekar’s Alienating Identification
Mita Mahato, University of Puget Sound
Panel 12: Comics as Education
Moderated by Susan Squier
An Illustrated Brochure in the Style of a Comic Book to
Educate People Living with AIDS About Prevention of
Foodborne Disease
Mark Dworkin, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public
Health
A Call for Help: Diabetes and Comics
Adam Perry, Penn State University
Logan Perry, Academy of Art, San Francisco
Aggression Management Manga
Rinko Endo, Chicago Lakeshore Hospital
Panel 10: Neurology, Autism, and Comics
Moderated by Susan Squier
Comics on the Brain
Neil Phillips, Aboriginal Medical Service, Shrink-Rap Press
Drawing Different: Creating Comics About Asperger Syndrome
and Autism Spectrum Disorders
John Swogger, freelance illustrator, Wales, UK
Picturing Disability: Drawing Autism and the Savage of Averyon
Courtney Angermeier, University of New Mexico
Jeff Benham, freelance artist
Panel 11: Comics as Process & Method
Moderated by Michael Green
Applying Comics to Patient Care: Proposal for a Development Process
Rose Anderson, Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation
Losing Patience: A Geritrician’s Attempt at Ethnographic Research
Through Comics
Muna Al-Jawad, Brighton and Sussex University Hospital
Workshop 3: Sarah Leavitt:
From Diary to Graphic Narrative:
Finding the Story in Your Personal Experience
Public lecture by Scott McCloud:
Comics and Visual Communication
followed by a Q&A with Scott McCloud
moderated by Katie Watson
Closing reception and book signings
Location: Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 W. North Avenue