[ecrea] Borders - Identity, Difference and Representation CFP

The CFP for the Eighth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference 
/ Joint International Conference of Graphic Novels, Bandes Dessinées and 
Comics is attached and below:


Borders - Identity, Difference and Representation

Monday 26th to Friday 30th June 2017
University of Dundee & University of Glasgow


The border distinguishes one space or concept from another whether 
geopolitical, physical, psychological, ideological or temporal. As such 
it is a potent phenomenon in contemporary culture where invasion, 
contestation and negotiation of borders signal inclusion/exclusion or 
conflict. Geopolitical borders might deal with the imaginary lines on 
the map that distinguish one territory from another; immigration; 
citizenship; national and regional borders; sites of ownership; the 
topography of a space that can inhibit or prohibit; and the marks on the 
landscape made to claim one territory from another. Temporal borders 
include the construction of history through historical categories such 
as the Golden Age or the Silver Age, or the annotation of time in the 
comics medium.

Conceptually and aesthetically one can also explore the border on the 
comics page, through the variable or imaginary lines that define panels 
or the page. Narratively speaking, comics blur borders, including genre, 
such as the constant evolution of the superhero variety, lately into the 
high school teen drama (DC Superhero High) and the western (Jonah Hex). 
The medium also plays with the borders between modes of expression, as 
sound becomes visible; words become drawn; and the material becomes 
digital. In turn, we can ask whether there areborders between the terms 
‘comic’, ‘graphic novel’, ‘sequential art’, ‘manga’, or ‘bande dessinée’?

The body too has its borders: the inside and outside; gendered and 
racial identities; human versus animal or machine; dead versus alive. 
Psychologically we might also consider the borders between sanity and 
madness; political ideologies; or good and evil. These borders can be 
challenged, negotiated or invaded. The challenge to national borders by 
invasion and immigration can lead to trauma and war. The disruption of 
the body’s borders leads to abjection and the grotesque.

We invite papers on all aspects of the border in comics. The following 
list is by no means exhaustive:


• physical and political borders – national identity, transitions, 
change, immigration, status, politics
• transitions from one bodily state to another – shape shifting, 
life/death (in horror, fantasy, science fiction), gender reassignment, 
racial identities (for instance the changing gender or race in some 
superhero narratives)
• narrative borders – the never ending serial, the hybrid genre, the 
transmedia narrative
• aesthetic borders – the layout of the comics page, the intersections 
of panels
• conceptual borders – between genres, media, modes of expression
• temporal borders – historical approaches and categorisations, time on 
the comics page


We will also have room within our programme, as always, for papers that 
do not fit this specific theme. If you are submitting to the General 
Session please do make that clear in your proposal.
The conference will be in Dundee with a day trip to Glasgow on Wednesday 
28th.


Papers that are part of the International Bandes Dessinées Society 
(IBDS) sessions will be on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th. The general 
session will be on Wednesday 28th. The papers that are part of the 
International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference sessions will be on 
Thursday 29th and Friday 30th.

Please send proposals (up to 300 words) to (borders17 /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(borders17 /at/ gmail.com)> by 1st January 2017.

Dr Chris Murray

Associate Dean for Knowledge Exchange, Impact, Enterprise and Employability

Senior Lecturer, Comics Studies, School of Humanities

Course Leader, Masters in Comics and Graphic Novels (MLitt)

Director, Scottish Centre for Comics Studies and Dundee Comics Creative 
Space

Editor, Studies in Comics and UniVerse Comics


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