Comics as Research: Toward an Imaginative Methodology

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

As an art form, comics integrate visual and verbal elements, draw from a unique historical and cultural context, and privileges imagination and possibility. By considering the diverse ways comics are made, we examine the implications for research offered by cartooning and comics-making, specifically through juxtaposition, multi-modality, and imagination. Building on existing research in comics theory, art-making, arts-based educational research, critical theory, and cognition, we contend that cartooning provides medium- and form-specific ways for engaging the world, creating knowledge, and challenging existing structures and paradigms in research. We offer a multi-faceted approach to cartooning-as-research, using various comics-making methods and techniques as a way of constructing a unique comics methodology.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Arts and Learning

Chair

• Jarod Roselló, Pennsylvania State University

Papers

• Cartooning in the Borderlands - Jarod Roselló, Pennsylvania State University

• Comics: A Unique Thought-Space for Creative and Critical Inquiry - Nick Sousanis, University of Calgary

• Making Comics to Understand Science - Jay Hosler, Juniata College

• Comics and the Narrative of Research - Brooke Sheridan, The University of Alaska - Fairbanks

Discussant

• Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower, University of North Dakota