University of Florida Homepage

2016

2016 UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels
“Transnational Comics”

On April 8th-10th, 2016, UF hosted its 13th annual Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, “Transnational Comics: Crossing Gutters, Transcending Boundaries” in Gainesville, Florida.

Schedule

Schedule of Panel and Presentations for “Transnational Comics”

Keynote Speakers

John Lent

John A. Lent taught at the college/university level for 51 years, beginning in 1960, including stints as the organizer of the first journalism courses at De La Salle College in Manila; founder and coordinator of Universiti Sains Malaysia communications program; Rogers Distinguished Chair at University of Western Ontario; visiting professor at Shanghai University, Communication University of China, Jilin College of the Arts Animation School, and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Prof. Lent pioneered in the study of mass communication and popular culture in Asia (since 1964) and Caribbean (since 1968), comic art and animation, and development communication. He has authored or edited 77 books and monographs and hundreds or articles and chapters in books. Additionally, he publishes and edits International Journal of Comic Art (which he founded) and Asian Cinema (1994-2012), chairs Asian Popular Culture (PCA), Asian Cinema Studies Society (1994-2012), Comic Art Working Group (IAMCR) since 1984, Asian-Pacific Animation and Comics Association, and Asian Research Center for Animation and Comics Art (all of which he founded). He also founded the Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group of Association for Asian Studies in 1976 and its quarterly periodical, Berita, which he edited for 26 years. He has served on cartoon juries such as the Pulitzer Prize (twice), and others in many countries. He is a member of both American and Canadian editorial cartoonists association.

Derek Parker Royal

Derek Parker Royal is a professor in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. His areas of research include comics studies, contemporary literature, and narrative theory. He is the general editor of the new Bloomsbury Comics Studies Series, from Bloomsbury Academic, and he is the founder and former executive editor of the journal, Philip Roth Studies. His books include Philip Roth: New Perspectives on an American Author (Praeger, 2005), Philip Roth’s American Pastoral (Atlante, 2011, co-authored with Patrick Badonnel and Daniel Royot), Unfinalized Moments: Essays in the Development of Contemporary Jewish American Narrative (Purdue University Press, 2011), and the upcoming Visualizing Jewish Narrative: Essays on Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels (Bloomsbury Academic, 216). He has guest edited eight different special issues of scholarly journals, covering topics such as multi-ethnic comics, superheroes and gender, politics and comics, Woody Allen’s post-1990 films, and contemporary Jewish narrative. His essays on comics, film, and American literature have appeared in a variety of edited book collections and scholarly journals, including College LiteratureModern Fiction StudiesContemporary LiteratureImageTexTJournal of Graphic Novels and ComicsInternational Journal of Comic ArtPost ScriptMELUSCritiquePoe StudiesThe Mark Twain AnnualTexas Studies in Literature and LanguageMidwest QuarterlyModern Jewish Studies/YiddishShofar, and Studies in American Jewish Literature. He is currently working on two book projects for the University Press of Mississippi, including The Hernandez Brothers: Conversations (part of its Conversation with Comics Artists Series) and Coloring America, a collection of essays on post-1980s American multi-ethnic comics.

Edward Gauvin

Edward Gauvin has received fellowships and residencies from PEN America, the NEA, the Fulbright program, the Lannan Foundation, and the French Embassy. His work has won the John Dryden Translation prize and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award, and been nominated for the French-American Foundation and Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prizes. Other publications have appeared in The New York TimesHarper’sTin HouseSubtropicsWorld Literature Today, and Weird Fiction Review. The translator of more than 200 graphic novels, he is a contributing editor for comics at Words Without Borders.

Sponsors

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

Hotels and Travel

Accommodations

A block of rooms has been reserved for the UF Comics Conference attendees at Wyndham Garden for a group rate of $119 per night. Wyndham Garden offers complimentary Deluxe-Continental Breakfast, Wifi, parking, and free shuttle service to and from the Gainesville Airport as well as to the University of Florida campus. The hotel provides complimentary wifi and continental breakfast. It is approx. 1.75 miles from UF.

Attendees can call the hotel directly at 352-377-4000 and reference the UF Comics Conference to secure their reservation. The cut off date for reserving rooms at the group rate is March 24th.

A block of rooms has also been reserved at Home2suites for a group rate of $125 per night. Home2Suites offers complimentary Deluxe-Continental Breakfast, Wifi, parking, but no shuttle service. The hotel is approximately 2 miles from the conference venue. The cut off date for reserving rooms at the group rate is April 1st.

In order to make your reservation, please do the following:

  • Log on to: gainesvillehotel.home2suites.com
  • Put in the GROUP Code: UFE

If you have any questions, please contact Sherrie Janson. The hotel’s phone is 904-343-5439 and Sherrie Janson’s direct line is 352-519-5572. Her email address is sherrie.janson@hilton.com.

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 taxicab 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.

Conference Organizers

  • Chief Organizer–Anuja Madan, President, Graduate Comics Organization. Email: anujamadan@ufl.edu
  • Co-organizer– Spencer Chalifour, Vice President, Graduate Comics Organization. Email: schalifour@ufl.edu

Organization Committee

  • Charles Acheson
  • Najwa Al-tabaa
  • Emily Brooks
  • Jaquelin Elliott
  • Megan Fowler
  • Madeline B. Gangnes
  • Asmaa Ghonim
  • Ashley Manchester
  • Kayley Thomas
  • Victoria Villanti

Call For Papers

2016 Call For Papers