[Commlist] CFP: participation and communities in comics symposium

Please see below the EXTENDED CFP DEADLINE for the symposium 
Participation and Communities in Comics. DL for the proposals is on 8 May.

Best regards,
Anna Vuorinne & Laura Antola
Coordinators of the network Comics and Society: Research, Art, and 
Cultural Politics

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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITIES IN COMICS
28 July – 4 August 2019
Roosta, Estonia

We invite scholars, students, artists, and other professionals working 
with comics to the second symposium of the network Comics and Society: 
Research, Art, and Cultural Politics (2019-2021). Comics and Society is 
an interdisciplinary three-year initiative that aims to cultivate our 
understanding of comics as a social and socially defined phenomenon and 
to strengthen the status of comic art and comics scholarship in the 
Nordic-Baltic region. Through academic discussion, artistic work, and 
social engagement we explore how comics take part in making sense of 
societies, social phenomena, and societal changes especially, but not 
exclusively, in the Nordic and Baltic countries.

In our second symposium Participation and Communities in Comics we will 
explore comics and comics cultures as a form of participation and 
building of communities. Throughout their history comics have taken part 
in making of, for example, national and cultural communities by 
establishing communal identities and communicating generally accepted 
values. On the other hand, comics have always been used for critical 
social commentary and building of subcultures and alternative communities.

People engage with comics in many different ways. Reading, making fan 
art and fan fiction, blogging, cosplaying, writing on forums and message 
boards are all parts of today’s participatory cultures around comics. 
Participation and cooperation are important to not only fans and readers 
of comics, but to the creators as well. Comics associations, societies 
and other initiatives help creators with networking, publishing, and 
promoting. Similarly, comics are often made by teams of two or more 
people. Communities around comics can be inclusive and exclusive at the 
same time. A fan community can feel very welcoming to certain people, 
while others are marginalized. The aim of the symposium is to 
investigate how comics as well as reading and creating them establish 
communities, create sense of belonging, and support social empowerment 
especially, but not exclusively, in the Nordic-Baltic region.

Some of the questions we would like to address in the summer symposium 
include:
– What is the significance of gaining support from a network and working 
together?
– Are comics still building communities based on nationality or are we 
living in the times of transnational comics cultures?
– What is the relationship between comics and social activism? How have 
comics been used and what makes comics useful for the purposes of activism?
– Can comics and comics workshops support social empowerment? What kind 
of communities are built around comics workshops and what is the role of 
the community in the process?
– How are fan communities built and what kinds of meaning do they carry 
for those who engage in them? What is the role of comic cons and 
festivals in participatory comics cultures?
– How do comics tackle the questions of inclusion and exclusion in 
communities and in society? How can these questions be addressed by 
scholars, artists, fans etc?

We welcome proposals from scholars, students, artists as well as other 
practitioners working with comics. The basic length of a presentation 
will be 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes discussion. We also welcome 
proposals for longer participatory workshops. If you would like to 
organize a workshop, please discuss the details individually with the 
coordinators. Please send a proposal (max. 300 words) and a short 
biographical statement to Laura Antola ((lahean /at/ utu.fi)) and Anna Vuorinne 
((ahvuor /at/ utu.fi)) by 1 May 2019. This is also the deadline for the 
application of scholarships and grants (for details, see below). If you 
would like to attend the symposium without presenting your work, please 
send us a biographical statement and briefly explain your interest in 
participating. However, priority is given to applicants who will present 
their work. The preliminary programme will be announced in mid-May at 
www.nordic.university. There you will also find more information about 
NSU and c!
 an sign up for the newsletter.​

See the full CFP for more information on our website: 
http://nordic.university/study-circles/9-comics-society-research-art-cultural-politics/cfp-summer-session-2019-circle-9/

Practical information about the Nordic Summer University Summer Session, 
including registration, the NSU scholarship program, and transportation 
can be found on the NSU newsletter: 
http://nordic.university/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Information-from-NSU-no.2-2019.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3qfQ3ZunnBsTo38TK0VGARK0vAhE2DtfHdnF9SP7NbqYNl8awqfXgAY3c

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