Graphic Ethnography: Comics as Research

Comics offer researchers unique ways to portray time, memory, and speech on the page. In this course, we read global works of graphic ethnography, graphic medicine, comics journalism, and comics theory. We analyze the building blocks of the page and panel, ethics of drawn representations, and more, putting what we study into practice. The final project is a short Durham-based graphic ethnography; graduate students may, instead, integrate graphic narrative into a research project of their own. Interest in visual thinking is required, but no drawing background–comics can employ a wide array of representational strategies. Prerequisite: ICS 195, CULANTH 101D, VMS 202, or a 100-level DOCST course required for undergraduate students.