REMINDER- CFP Closes 28th Feb 2011

Comics & Medicine: The Sequential Art of Illness

9-11 June 2010
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, Illinois 

This second international interdisciplinary conference* aims to
explore the past, present, and possible future of comics in the
context of the healthcare experience.  Programs in medical humanities
have long touted the benefits of reading literature and studying
visual art in the medical setting, but the use of comics in
healthcare practice and education is relatively new.  The melding of
text and image has much to offer all members of the healthcare team,
including patients and families.  As such, a subgenre of graphic
narrative known as graphic medicine is emerging as a field of
interest to both scholars and creators of comics. 

We invite proposals for scholarly papers (15 minutes), poster
presentations, and panel discussions (60 minutes), focused on
medicine and comics in any form (e.g., graphic novels, comic strips,
graphic pathographies, manga, and/or web comics) on the following—and
related—topics:

graphic pathographies of illness and disability
the use of comics in medical education 
the use of comics in patient care
the interface of graphic medicine and other visual arts in popular
culture
ethical implications for using comics to educate the public
ethical implications of patient representation in comics by
healthcare providers 
trends in international use of comics in healthcare settings
the role of comics in provider/patient communication
comics as a virtual support group for patients and caregivers
the use of comics in bioethics discussions and education 	


We also welcome workshops (120 minutes) by creators of comics on the
process, rationale, methods, and general theories behind the use of
comics to explore medical themes. These are intended to be “hands-on”
interactive workshops for participants who wish to obtain particular
skills with regard to the creation or teaching about comics in the
medical context. 

We envision this gathering as a collaboration among humanities
scholars, comics scholars, comics creators, healthcare professionals,
and comics enthusiasts. 

300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday, 28 February 2011 to
[log in to unmask] Proposals may be in Word,
WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in
this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract,
body of abstract.  Please identify your presentation preference: 1)
oral presentation; 2) poster presentation; 3) panel discussion; or 4)
workshop. While we cannot guarantee that presenters will receive
their first choice, we will attempt to honor people’s preferences,
and We will acknowledge the receipt of all proposals submitted. 
Abstracts will be peer-reviewed by an interdisciplinary selection
committee. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be completed
by 14 March 2011.

This event is 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
is supported by a grant from the Charles Schulz Foundation.

*Information about the 2010 conference, “Comics and Medicine: Medical
Narrative in Graphic Novels,” in London, England can be found at
www.graphicmedicine.org.