IGNCC22 Comics and Conscience: Ethics, Morality, and Great Responsibility

Hosted by Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) with support from the Creative Futures Academy (CFA) in association with Studies in Comics (Intellect) and the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Routledge).

This conference will run to British Summer Time and will offer an in-person strand (in the Lexicon Theatre, Dun Laoghaire) and an online strand (to be held live via Hopin, although presenters will be able to play pre-recorded presentations if they prefer).

You may now directly register for the event via Hopin.

The International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference 2022 (IGNCC22) explores the roles of conscience, responsibility, morality, and ethics in comics in an era when these values are under threat. Conscience determines our judgements of right or wrong, good or evil. The duties and responsibilities of the individual and the collective have been explored in several comics genres from war (Witek 1989), superheroes (DiPaolo, 2011; Gavaler & Goldberg, 2019; South, 2005), autobiography and teaching (Scherr 2013; DeFalco 2016). There have also been studies of morality and ethics in comics creation and publication, for instance, in creators’ rights.

However, according to Paul Strohm (2011) the longevity of conscience in shaping national, collective and individual human values owes much to its ability to mould itself to historical, cultural and ideological conditions. Conscience is, therefore, not fixed. Contemporary ideas of morality and ethics are in flux in politics, war, and international relations. Debates around these concepts also underpin communication, news reporting, and even social media where notions of individual responsibility and accountability may be ignored, or can be foregrounded.

How do these contemporary challenges to conscience, ethics, morality, and responsibility prompt us to think about texts, examples, and representation, or to approach or rethink debates and conflicts in comics studies?

For more information on the conference and the schedule of events, please visit our website.

References

DeFalco, Amelia. 2016. “Graphic Somatography: Life Writing, Comics, and the Ethics of Care.” Journal of Medical Humanities, no. 37: 223–40.

DiPaolo, Marc. 2011. War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co.

Gavaler, Chris, and Nathaniel Goldberg. 2019. Superhero Thought Experiments: Comic Book Philosophy. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.

Scherr, Rebecca. 2013. “Teaching ‘The Auto-Graphic Novel’: Autobiographical Comics and the Ethics of Readership.” In Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom, edited by Rob Weiner and Carrye Syma, 134–44. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co.

South, J B. 2005. “Barbara Gordon and Moral Perfectionism.” In Superheroes and Philosophy, edited by T Morris and M Morris, 89–101. Illinois: Carus.

Strohm, Paul. 2011. Conscience: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Witek, Joseph. 1989. Comic Books as History : The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar. Studies in Popular Culture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.