2026 Graphic Medicine Annual Conference

Join Us At Johns Hopkins University this July

The Graphic Medicine International Collective is thrilled to team with Johns Hopkins University for the 2026 annual Graphic Medicine conference in Baltimore, from July 23-25, 2026.

The conference theme is Drawing Perspectives: Health Graphic Narratives Under Pressure. We will explore this theme broadly to include the many ways our community of graphic medicine authors, artists, and scholars leverage the medium of comics to propose diverse perspectives on healthcare, illness, disability, or social medicine, often working under various pressures, whether these relate to living with chronic illness, shifting institutional conditions for health and medical research and care practices, or other constraints such as time, healthcare disparities, ableism, and various forms of marginalization and prejudice.

Registration

Please choose the ticket level that best represents your available resources, including institutional funding, bearing in mind that those able to afford a higher level ticket will be assisting those unable to do so.

In-person tickets:

• $300 (Recommended for Professionals)
• $100 (Recommended for Students and unfunded)

When registering, you will also have the following options:

On-Campus Housing

We have secured 20 rooms on-campus at the Scott-Bates Commons Residence Hall for $100/night.

(it’s centrally located and a 3-minute walk from where most of the conference will take place)

Rooms are single bedrooms within 2-person or 4-person suites (2 people per bathroom) that include kitchenette with stove-top and refrigerator. Note: linens and towels are not provided.

These rooms will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis. For information about additional housing options, please continue reading.

Tabling

If you are interested in having a table in our exhibition space during the conference, please select that option on the registration form and we will follow up with more details as they become available.

Book Event

On Saturday, July 25th, following conference activities, there will be a book event at 7 pm at Red Emma’s, a local bookstore. If you have a recent book you would like to have shipped to the store for sale and signing at the event, please indicate the book’s title and publisher. Pending finalization of the program, the conference organizers and/or bookstore will be in touch with you or your publisher about facilitating the shipment.

More Housing Options

In addition to the on-campus housing mentioned above, our local planning committee has secured agreements with two campus-adjacent hotels (both about a 5-minute walk from campus) for discounted rates of around $180/night+tax.

The Inn at the Colonnade
4 W University Pkwy
Baltimore, MD, 21218)

• Online Reservations: Guests can book their stay with the special group rate here, GRAPHICMEDICINEANNUALCONFERENCE
  (If any guests wish to stay only one or two nights, they simply change the dates once the weblink opens and click update.)
• Phone Reservations: If preferred, guests may call 667-899-5305 (Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–4:00 PM EDT) and ask for the Sales Department. Guests may also call Hilton Worldwide Reservations at 800-774-1500 and give them your Group Code of “SB3” and their arrival date.

The Study
3215 N Charles St
Baltimore, MD, 21218

• Online Reservations: Guests will be able to confirm reservation beginning at $189.00 for King Guest Rooms using this link: 2026 Graphic Medicine Conference Preferred Accommodations - The Study at Johns Hopkins

• Phone Reservations: Guests can contact the Front Desk at The Study 24 hours a day via telephone at 410-243-0030.

Agenda

We are currently finalizing our agenda of workshops, panels, and lighting talks, with a full schedule to posted soon. In the meantime, some highlights to look forward to:

• Keynote talks from Nathan Gray and Meredith Li-Vollmer
• Presentation of the 2026 Graphic Medicine Awards
• A Production of "Aliceheimer's Opera," based on the graphic memoir by Dana Walrath **Support the Production Here**

Contact

Please stay tuned to this page and graphicmedicine.org for more updates as they become available. For questions, please contact the conference organizers at GMConference2026@gmail.com.