It is rare to be given the opportunity to exist as a sponge. I was at full absorbing capacity over the course of 2 days at the 2024 Graphic Medicine Conference in Ireland this year. As a first-time attendee and newbie to the world of graphic medicine, I knew I had an important task before me to honor the generosity of the Peter James Burns Scholarship and be the best and most vigilant fly on the wall that I could be.
My foray into Graphic Medicine began this year via a cancer comic series collaboration with Jane Kollmer and Kathryn West at UChicago’s Cancer Center. West helped organize the 2023 Graphic Medicine conference in Chicago and initially informed me of this realm where comics and science communication are intimately intertwined. Excited to hear and learn from like-minded individuals, I was not let down by my conference experience.
The conference was set against the striking backdrop of Ireland – a verdant landscape painted over with expansive fields and boundless bodies of water, its edges sculpted by rocky cliffs. Nestled in the town of Athlone, I met a friendly assembly of smart and creative individuals. I was struck not only by the breadth and diversity of work showcased, but also by the meaning and importance behind them. It was clearly exemplified that graphic medicine serves as an effective educational tool. Marita Hennessy presented on her project raising awareness about recurrent miscarriage care in Ireland, while Rebekah Gardner and Vinald Francis reported on how they use comics in medical school classes.
Furthermore, I witnessed how graphic medicine is a space for sharing personal stories. Sophie Smiles showed a touching short film about making sense of past trauma. I observed how telling stories is a means of reliving, recovering, and relating to others. Veronica Moretti and Stefano Ratti presented their graphic novel elucidating a “less glamorous organ,” the pancreas, through the stories of patients living with pancreatic illness. In listening and having conversations with different individuals, it became apparent that the power of graphic medicine lies in its ability to help people better understand themselves, their relationship to their own health, and more broadly, what it means to be alive.
Living is often tied to a ticking clock. In Brian Callender’s presentation, he pointed out that our world holds both objective time (which is represented by things like calendars) and subjective time (which is informed by our own perception of time). When one becomes ill, daily habits and expectations are disrupted. Whereas illness is “experienced in dynamic, subjective time, diseases are conceptualized in objective time.” In realizing the existence of simultaneous universes, we must always consider whose narrative is being represented in the stories we read. Thanks to comics, we can use visual storytelling to subvert constraints of time and space and explore the intersection of multiple temporalities.
Throughout the conference, I saw an abundance of beautiful visual storytelling in graphic medicine. I felt continually inspired to pick up a brush and make art, especially after listening to Zara Slattery’s keynote lecture. Slattery entranced the room by beginning with a description of the exercises that she has her art students do. Slattery suggested approaching observational drawings as though we are “cartographers traveling around the object.” She emphasized being engaged in the process and dancing with the rhythm and flow of marks, stating that “drawing is how we travel across the paper.” Slattery’s lovely metaphors reframed my approach to art-making. I was not only reflecting on art-making each day, but also re-evaluating the ways that I even think. Keynote speaker Nick Sousanis emphasized that good seers are good thinkers. Here, “seeing” is done with more than the eyes: I understand it as a way of experiencing ideas with all our senses. As Sousanis aptly remarked, “comics offer a different way of thinking.”
Befitting the conference’s theme of magic, I felt wonderment and gratitude for having a special pocket of time dedicated to thinking about art and science. With all these insights in mind, I am eager to apply them as I continue practicing graphic medicine. Thank you to the Peter James Burns Scholarship for making this all possible!
In response to attending the Graphic Medicine conference in Ireland, I created the comic below as my interpretation of how to be a better “seer”:
Julia Shangguan is a PhD student in Biochemistry & Biophysics at University of Chicago. You can find her on Instagram @going_guan and reach her by email at juliashangguan@gmail.com. Her comics explaining cancer can be found here: https://voices.uchicago.edu/communitycancer/programs/community-education-explaincancer/.
What a delightful reflection, Julia! Thanks for sharing!