Teaching Migration Through Comics: Exploring Hakim’s Odyssey

Join us for a special International Book Club featuring Hakim’s Odyssey by Fabien Toulmé — a powerful graphic narrative tracing one man’s flight from war-torn Syria to safety in Europe.

The event will explore the use of the bande dessinée (Franco-Belgian comic tradition) to tell complex human stories of migration, displacement, and resilience. Peter Russella (UW–Madison), a scholar of French-language comics, will discuss the cultural significance of this medium and how it conveys empathy and historical awareness through art. Nevine El Nossery, Professor of French and Aftrican Cultural Studies and Director of the Middle East Studies Program will moderate the event.

This free, online event is open to all and especially designed for K–12 educators seeking resources and perspectives for teaching about global migration, refugees, and the human experience behind the headlines.

The first 15 K-12 educators who register for this event will receive a free copy of the book!

Peter Russella (he/him) is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is writing a dissertation entitled A Feu Tournant: The Lighthouses of French-Language Literature, Comics, and Film. He recently published a French and comics studies article entitled “Making the French Lighthouse Breton in Emmanuel Lepage’s Ar-Men” (pron: are - men) in Contemporary French and Francophone Studies. On campus, he teaches French-language comics in his own department, comics from around the world in Prof. Adam Kern’s Introduction to Comics and Graphic Novels course, and has studied drawing with cartoonist Lynda Barry in the Art Department for nearly a decade. He is also a literary translator specializing in comics.

Nevine El Nossery is the Director of the Middle East Studies Program and Associate Professor in the departments of French and Italian, and African Cultural Studies. Her research and teaching interests are Francophone and Postcolonial Studies, women writing, art and politics, and Middle-Eastern literatures and cultures.

This event is sponsored by IRIS NRC, European Studies, and the Middle East Studies Program at UW-Madison.