Using Comics to Build Community: Approaches to Teaching Comics (Roundtable) (Virtual)
Co-organizers Michael A. Torregrossa and Carl B. SellSponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
Call for Papers - Please Submit Proposals by 30 September 2026
58th Annual Convention of Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Salve Regina University (Newport, RI)/Online.
Hybrid event: 6-9 March 2027
This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.
Rationale
Teaching with comics offers many ways to engage with the conference theme of Empowering Communities.Comics, through their interplay of text and image, can support and/or supplement the reading of traditional texts and help all students to engage equally with a story. In addition, comics, by themselves, offer unique examples and models of a wide array of literary genres, both as fiction and non-fiction, spurring conversations and debate within the classroom. Lastly, the creation of comics as an activity forges a third type of community as creators work together to produce and (often) publish their work.
In this session, we seek to highlight innovative ways that instructors are using comics in their classrooms, either through one of the strategies we’ve outlined or through something unique to their own teaching.
We welcome submissions from instructors of all disciplines and experiences.
Submission Instructions
All proposals must be submitted into the CFPList system at https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22574 by 30 September 2026. You will be prompted to create an account with NeMLA (if you do not already have one) and, then, to complete sections on Title, Abstract, Brief Bio, Media Needs, and Modality. This session’s modality is Virtual Only, meaning all presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.Notification on the status of your submission will be made by 16 October 2026. If accepted, NeMLA asks you to confirm your participation with the session chairs by accepting their invitation and by registering for the event. The deadline for Registration/Membership is 9 December 2026. For the 2027 Convention, registration will be the same for in-person and remote attendance. (See NeMLA’s Membership and Registration page, at https://www.nemla.org/about/members.html, for full details.)
Be advised of the following policies for the Convention: All participants must be members of NeMLA for the year of the conference. Participants may present on up to two sessions of any type. Registrants at NeMLA may not present the same abstract/paper on two different sessions. (See NeMLA’s Presenter Policies page, at https://www.nemla.org/convention/policies.html, for further details. Information on Session Types can be found at https://www.nemla.org/convention/sessions.html.)
NeMLA offers limited funding for travel to graduate students and to contingent faculty, adjunct instructors, independent scholars, and two-year college faculty. Details can be found at NeMLA’s Travel Awards page at https://www.nemla.org/awards/travel.html.
Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.
For more information on the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, please visit our blog, Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture, at https://MedievalinPopularCulture.blogspot.com/.
