March 18, 2018

Event date: –

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

International Comics and Medicine Conference Comes to Vermont and New Hampshire

Academic conference to be hosted by The Center for Cartoon Studies with support by Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College

August 16-18, 2018

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION (VT), March 19, 2018– The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is proud to announce the 9^th International Comics and Medicine Conference to be held at The Center for Cartoon Studies campus and at nearby Dartmouth College. Previous conferences have been held in London, Chicago, Toronto, Brighton, Seattle, and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Graphic Medicine explores the intersections of comics and healthcare. This year’s theme, “The Ways We Work” invites participants to share and reflect upon how Graphic Medicine is being practiced in public healthcare centers, classrooms, home studios, private clinics, libraries, and bedsides. The conference begins with an evening event held Thursday, August 16, and then consists of two days of a mix of peer-reviewed academic papers, lectures, and workshops.

The conference’s theme was inspired by the work of keynote speaker and Norwich, Vermont resident David Macaulay. David is a MacArthur Fellow known for his award winning books Cathedral, The Way Things Work, and his book about the human body, The Way We Work.

In recent years, The Center for Cartoon Studies, as part of its Applied Cartooning initiative, has partnered with local medical centers including DHMC, Geisel Medical School, The White River Junction VA, and The Good Neighbor Healthcare Clinic on a variety of projects.

“At first you wouldn’t think comics and healthcare would be a natural fit but here in the Upper Valley we’ve found that they go together like peanut butter and jelly,” says James Sturm, CCS director, past Graphic Medicine keynote speaker, and member of the conference organizing committee. “All over the world artists and healthcare providers are exploring the myriad of ways that comics can make healthcare more effective and more humane. This conference brings together innovators from across the globe to share their best practice.”

Bill Nelson said “Participating in the Graphic Medicine elective at Geisel School of Medicine was eye opening in seeing the application of cartooning to patient care and in medical education.” Nelson is on the faculty of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and serves as the Director of the Health and Values Program that integrates ethics and medical humanities into the four-year curriculum.

In addition to David Macaulay, there will be two other conference keynote speakers, Susan Merrill Squier and Whit Taylor. Susan Merrill Squier is the Brill Professor Emerita of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and English at Pennsylvania State University and the Einstein Visiting Fellow at Freie Universität, Berlin, where she is part of the PathoGraphics Project examining the relationship between illness narratives and works of Graphic Medicine. Squier’s books include Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawing as Metaphor, Graphic Medicine Manifesto, and Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Biomedicine.

Whit Taylor is a cartoonist, writer, editor, and public health educator from New Jersey. She has a BA in cultural anthropology from Brown University and received an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Boston University School of Public Health. Her comics have been published by The Nib, The New Yorker, Rosarium Publishing, BOOM!, Sparkplug Books, Kus, Ninth Art Press, Illustrated PEN, and others.

Registration for the conference is required, but a number of public events, including the keynote speeches, will be free to the public. For additional information about the conference, and to register, visit: cartoonstudies.org/comicsandmedicine.

For more information about The Center for Cartoon Studies, Applied Cartooning, to request an interview with a keynote speaker, or to inquire about sponsoring opportunities, contact: media@cartoonstudies.org

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About The Center for Cartoon Studies

The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is America’s premier cartooning school and studio located in the historic village of White River Junction, Vermont. CCS programs include a two-year Master of Fine Arts Degree, one- and two-year certificates in cartooning, and annual summer workshops. Faculty and visiting artists include many of today’s most celebrated cartoonists. CCS has received national acclaim for its work and prominent mention in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and other publications. For more information, visit: cartoonstudies.org.