Published recently in SMART is a fascinating essay by medievalist and cartoonist Patrick Murphy of Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. The full issue can be purchased directly from SMART.
Here is the citation:
Murphy, Patrick. “Teaching the History of the English Language with Comics.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2021, pp. 101-21.
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Hosted online by Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Handouts, notices, call for papers, and a copy of the session agenda can also be accessed from the shared Google folder at https://tinyurl.com/Saving-the-Day-2021.
106 Tuesday, May 11, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Sponsor: Medieval Comics Project; Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
A roundtable discussion with Dustin M. Frazier Wood, Univ. of Roehampton; Justin Wigard, Michigan State Univ.; Kara L. Maloney, Canisius College; Genevieve Pigeon, Univ. du Québec à Montréal; and Carl B. Sell, Lock Haven Univ.
Comics and the Canon: Medieval and Medievalist Texts in the Undergraduate Literature Classroom
Dustin M. Frazier Wood is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Roehampton in London. He holds a PhD in English and Art History from the University of St Andrews, an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Liberal Arts from Bethany College in West Virginia. His research focuses on medievalism in English culture c1600-c1800, with a particular emphasis on the interplay of textual and visual studies in antiquarian culture. He has published articles on Anglo-Saxonist drama and visual art, on early modern Old English translators, and on antiquarian Old English studies. His book Anglo-Saxonism and the Idea of Englishness in Eighteenth-Century Britain has just been published by Boydell and Brewer.
Arthurian Legend, Animal-Centric Illustration, and Play in David Petersen’s Mouse Guard
Justin Wigard is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at Michigan State University, where he works with and teaches popular culture, game studies, comic studies, children’s literature, and digital humanities in the literature classroom. His work covers a wide range of subjects, including the Hallmark Channel’s Garage Sale Mystery film series (co-written with fellow grad student Mitch Ploskonka); professional wrestling and Street Fighter; chronotopal representations of feminism in Marvel’s Jessica Jones; the visual rhetoric of dinosaurs in Calvin and Hobbes; monstrous motherhood in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Beowulf comics; and digital visualizations of early-Modern Mughal biographies. Justin’s dissertation focuses on utilizing, and developing, video games as learning tools within the classroom.
Aquaman to Arthur: How the Round Table Lives on In the Classroom
Dr. Kara Larson Maloney is an adjunct professor of English at several Buffalo-area colleges. She received her PhD from Binghamton University in 2015, focusing on chivalry and identity in King Arthur’s court in medieval British and French texts. While her current teaching duties include convincing an 8 year old to actually do the schoolwork assigned, Dr. Maloney enjoys researching both medieval and modern Arthurian adaptations, including television, film, and graphic novels. She’s especially happy when she can bring this work into the classroom.
From Medieval Texts to Contemporary Comics: Sacred Spaces and Communication with the Other World
Geneviève Pigeon holds a Masters Degree in Medieval Literature and a PhD in Religious Studies, with a focus on Arthurian Britain and myth theories. She is a researcher with the Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique (Rennes, Brest ; France), the Centre de Recherche International sur l’Imaginaire (CRI) and teaches in the Religious Studies department at Université du Québec à Montréal. She is interested in better understanding how humans use space and natural elements to create order out of chaos through popular narratives, whether they are promoted by institutions (religious, political) or not.
Geneviève is also the owner and general director of a publishing house founded in 1986 (L’instant même).
Medievalist Comics, ComiXology, and eReaders: Embracing Digital Accessibility and
the Uses of eReaders in Scholarship and Teaching
Dr. Carl B. Sell is the TRIO SSS Writing Specialist at Lock Haven University. Carl’s research explores appropriations of Arthurian legend narratives, characters, and themes in popular culture as an extension of the medieval adaptive tradition. He serves as a member of the advisory boards for The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, and he is the author of various film and literature reviews on medievalist and scholarly blogs and his own website, as well as journal articles on Arthurian topics and DC’s Aquaman.
142 Tuesday, May 11, 3:00 p.m. EDT
Sponsor: Medieval Comics Project; Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
A roundtable discussion with Richard Scott Nokes, Troy Univ.; Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison; Karen Casebier, Univ. of Tennessee–Chattanooga; Scott Manning, Independent Scholar; and Michael A. Torregrossa.
Beowulf in Comic Books and Graphic Novels
Dr. Richard Scott Nokes is an Associate Professor of medieval literature at Troy University. He earned his B.A. from Butler University (1992) and PhD from Wayne State University (2002). He taught English in Korea for two years, and developed the American Studies program at Klaipėda University in Lithuania. After being hired at Troy University in 2003, he won a Fulbright-Hayes award to study the Maya epic in the Guatemala highlands (2003), was a regional finalist for the White House Fellows program (2007), founded Witan Publishing (2011), and has been featured several times in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
His current book project is a study of comic book adaptations of Beowulf His other recent book chapters and articles include a study of medieval leechbooks for Health: A History in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series and an article on “Medieval and Public Discourse” for The Heroic Age. As Senior Academic Editor for Witan Publishing, he has edited and published a number of books on subjects ranging from an edition of Beowulf to Formal Combats in the Fourteenth Century. Most recently, he has published editions of much older works, such as Ælfric of Eynsham’s Letter to Sigeweard and Elizabeth Elstob’s “English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory.”
In addition to his academic work, his outreach into fan culture has earned him the title “Professor Awesome” among non-academics. He netcasts on “Professor Awesome and the Minions of Doom” and is co-host of the PopMedieval Podcast. His most recent popular novel, a work of whimsical horror entitled From A to Zombie, is published under the pseudonym “Professor Awesome.”
“Tarzan the Crusader?” Visualizing the White Cross and the Raced Crescent in the Lord of the Jungle’s Comic Book and Pulp Illustration Appearances
[no bio provided]
French Arthurian Comics and the Contemporary Art of Inventio (access the handout at https://tinyurl.com/Saving-the-Day-2021)
Karen (Casey) Casebier is an Associate Professor of French at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Her principal area of research is the conflation of the sacred and the profane across different genres of thirteenth-century French literature, including saints’ lives, romance and the fabliaux. Her research interests include manuscript studies, bestiaries and contemporary interpretations of Arthurian literature. She recently published an article on representations of gender in Arthurian comics for Synergies as well as an article on resurrection motifs in Marie de France for Le Cygne. In her copious free time, she is working on a series of unpublished, unedited miracle tales in a 14th-century manuscript branch of La Vie des pères.
Useful links:
Soleil Productions: https://www.editions-soleil.fr/
BDthèque: https://www.bdtheque.com/
Lessons Learned in Publishing Scholarship on Comic Books
Scott Manning is an independent scholar and the VP of Conference for the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association. He is published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism and Studies in Medievalism. Scott has several forthcoming works including a chapter in The DC Universe to be published by McFarland.
What If Merlin Was Mentor to Stephen Strange?: Philip DeGuere's Dr. Strange (1978) and Marvel Comics' Matter of Britain
Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and works as an adjunct instructor in English in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His research focuses on popular culture’s adaptation and appropriation of literary classics, including the Arthurian legend, Beowulf, Dracula, and Frankenstein. In addition, Michael is the founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture; he also serves as editor for these organizations' various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists. Besides these activities, Michael is also active in the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association and organizes sessions for their annual conference in the fall. Michael is currently Monsters and the Monstrous Area Chair for NEPCA, but he previously served as its Fantastic (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror) Area Chair, a position he held from 2009-2018.
Saving the Day for Robin Hood Studies: Perspectives and Reflections on Comics Adapted from the Matter of the Greenwood (Roundtable)
Sponsored by
The Medieval Comics Project, an outreach effort of the Association for the
Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture.
For Global
Outlaws: The Biennial Conference of the International Association for Robin
Hood Studies
Tentative Date:
3-5 December 2021.
Medium: VIRTUAL.
Deadline for
Proposals: 11 October 2021.
According to a recent search of the Grand Comics Database, creators of comic
books and graphic novels have produced over three thousand comics directly based
on or inspired by the Robin Hood tradition. These comics span almost ninety
years and come from over twenty countries; however, the true scope of Hood’s
influence on the medium appears much larger. A variety of archers, both heroes
and villains, also feature within the pages of comics, and Hood and his fellows
have also frequented both cartoons and comic strips, though their adventures
there remain largely uncatalogued.
Of these thousands of comics, how
much and what items are actually known to enthusiasts of the Matter of the
Greenwood? Robin Hood scholars, since the1990s, have started to offer some answers,
but much work still remains to more fully explore the world of Sherwood Forest
depicted in their panels. In this sponsored session, we hope to create a deeper
connection between Robin Hood Studies and Comics Studies to highlight this rich
corpus and provide tools and resources for how to find, access, and employ
Robin-Hood-themed comics in our classroom and research.
Please send
proposals of approximately 250 words and a short academic biography to the
panel organizers at Comics.Get.Medieval@gmail.com.
We will forward the full panel details to the conference committee.
For more
information on the Medieval Comics Project and the Association for the
Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture,
please check out our websites at https://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/
and https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.
Here are the details of our upcoming panel this weekend. Further details and registration information are available on the conference website.
41st Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum: Scent and
Fragrance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Virtual event, hosted by Keene State University, Keene, New Hampshire
Friday and Saturday, 16-17 April 2021
Session VI--Saturday, 17 April from 3:00 PM to 4:20 PM
Arthurian Comics (Breakout Option C)
Sponsored by the Medieval Comics Project, an outreach effort
of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the
Medieval in Popular Culture
Moderator: Hayley Cotter, University of
Massachusetts—Amherst
From Canon to Comics: Adaptations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the Comics
Medium
Michael Torregrossa, Independent Scholar
Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies
program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and works as an adjunct
instructor in English in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts. His research
focuses on popular culture’s adaptation and appropriation of literary classics,
including the Arthurian legend, Beowulf, Dracula, and Frankenstein.
In addition, Michael is the organizer of The Comics Get Medieval, a series of
sessions run at various conferences since the early 2000s. This work is
sponsored by both Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of
Britain and The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of
the Medieval in Popular Culture, which Michael founded and serves as editor for
their various blogs and moderator of their discussion lists.
Old Norse Gods and Ethnically Different Slaves in the Comic
Book Series Thorgal
Anna Czarnowus, University of Silesia, Katowice (Poland)
Anna Czarnowus, PhD, D. Litt., is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Silesia, Katowice (Poland). She specializes in Middle English literature and medievalisms. She published Inscription on the Body: Monstrous Children in Middle English Literature (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego 2009) and Fantasies of the Other’s Body in Middle English Oriental Romance (Peter Lang 2013). She authored over 40 journal articles and chapters in monographs. She co-edited (with Professor Margaret Jane Toswell from the University of Western Ontario) Medievalism in English Canadian Literature: From Richardson to Atwood (D.S. Brewer 2020).
Vampires, Zombies, Aliens, and Superheroes: Reimaginings of
Arthurian Legend in Comics
Rachael K. Warmington, Seton Hall University
Rachael Warmington is a full-time instructor at Seton Hall University. She earned her B.A. in English from Montclair State University, M.A. in English from Seton Hall University, her MFA at CUNY City College and she is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Rachael is also the editor-in-chief of the open access academic journal, Watchung Review. She is currently writing her dissertation which focuses on themes of Arthurian Legend in medieval texts and in contemporary literature, film and television adaptations and appropriations and how these themes create the space that challenges oppression in its various forms, but have also been used to perpetuate racism, sexism and religious intolerance.
Be warned, it is violent and bloody.
A digital version can be purchased from comiXology.
