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2018

2018 UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels
ImageTech: Comics and Materiality

On April 6th-8th, 2018, UF will be hosting its 15th annual Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, “ImageTech: Comics and Materiality” in Gainesville, Florida.

Call For Papers

Schedule

Schedule of Panel and Presentations for “ImageTech”

Poster!

Downloadable pdf of the Conference Poster

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Anastasia Salter

Anastasia Salter is an assistant professor of digital media at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of Toxic Geek Masculinity in Media(Palgrave Macmillan 2017, coauthored with Bridget Blodgett), Jane Jensen: Gabriel Knight, Adventure Games, Hidden Objects (Bloomsbury 2017), What is Your Quest? From Adventure Games to Interactive Books(University of Iowa Press, 2014), and Flash: Building the Interactive Web(MIT Press, 2014, coauthored with John Murray). Her recent collaborations include the editorial team of the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 3(2016), a curated international collection of electronic literature, and co-editing the “Comics as Scholarship” experimental issue for Digital Humanities Quarterly (2015). Her work has appeared in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, The Journal of Popular Culture, Electronic Book Review, Transformative Works and Cultures, and several other venues. She is currently a member of the board of directors of the Electronic Literature Organization and the HASTAC Steering Committee, and previously served on the board and as president of the North American Simulation and Gaming Association.

Dr. Mita Mahato

In addition to being an Associate Professor of English at the University of Puget Sound, Mita Mahato is a cut paper, collage, and comics artist whose work explores the transformative capacities of found and handmade papers. Using collage and paper-making techniques, she builds multivalent images and stories that center on issues related to loss-including loss of life, identity, habitat, and species. A selection of her poetry comics, collectively titled In Between, was published by Pleiades Press in 2017, and her mini comics have been featured in Drunken Boat, Seattle Weekly, and Mutha Magazine. Her book “Sea” was recognized by Cartoonists NW as 2015’s “best comic book” and her comics art as been exhibited in galleries across the country. In 2017, she served as the first Artist in Residence at the School of Medicine at UC Riverside and, this summer, she will be continuing her work in Graphic Medicine by designing a workshop-based comics class for City of Hope cancer hospital. She serves on the board for the comics organization Short Run Seattle, as well as on the steering committee for Graphic Medicine.

Dr. Aaron Kashtan

Aaron Kashtan is a Lecturer in the University Writing Program at UNCC Charlotte. He received his PhD in English from the University of Florida and has previously taught at Georgia Tech and Miami (OH). His primary research interests are comics, materiality, and multimodal rhetoric. His first book, Between Pen and Pixel: Comics, Materiality, and the Book of the Future, will be published in April 2018 by Ohio State University Press, and his work has appeared in venues such as Digital Humanities Quarterly and Studies in the Novel. His next book project will focus on the diversification of comics audiences.

Sponsors

  • The Rose and David Dortort Foundation
  • The English Department at the University of Florida
  • Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere
  • ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies
  • CLASSC
  • UF Student Government
  • The Sequential Artists Workshop
  • Xerographic Copy Center

Travel

Air Travel

We recommend flying into Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV). Airports close to Gainesville are Jacksonville International (JAX) and Orlando International (MCO).

Gainesville has Uber. Several taxi cab services are also available:

  • Gator Taxi Cab (352) 336-8484
  • Luxury Cab: 352-519-1177
  • Safety Cab: 352-372-1444 and 352-372-1445

Getting Around Campus

Here is a link to the UF Campus Map.

UF campus map

Conference Organizers

  • Chief Organizer– Madeline Gangnes, President, Graduate Comics Organization. Email: mbgangnes@ufl.edu
  • Co-organizer– Megan Fowler, Vice President, Graduate Comics Organization. Email: mjfowler@ufl.edu

Organization Committee

  • Chris Smith
  • Jaquelin Elliott
  • Ayanni Hanna
  • Fiona Stewart-Taylor
  • Claudia Acosta
  • Corrine Matthews
  • Kevin Cooley
  • Spencer Chalifour
  • Emily Faith Brooks
  • Kayley Thomas
  • Charles Acheson