Drawing Out the Public Sphere: A Workshop on 'Cripping' Graphic Medicine

Time: Oct. 30, 2019, 10 a.m. - noon

Location: 304 Tolley Humanities Building

Elizabeth J. Donaldson (NYIT)

Using specific examples from a short comic in Daryl Cunningham's Psychiatric Tales, this workshop examines themes of violence alongside representations of mental illness in the larger culture, in order to discuss how comics can amplify or combat stigma.

This Syracuse Symposium workshop addresses issues of power in the silencing of disability and the “voices” of those who experience barriers in healthcare and healthcare education and practice. The session will also explore how disabled people’s “voices” are sometimes silenced in Graphic Medicine, the comics industry, and beyond, thus demonstrating why adaptations are necessary to (re)fashion a primarily visual medium so that it is consistently accessible to a spectrum of creators and audiences.

Space is limited; please RSVP by 10/23 to Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri, 315-443-2156. Include any accessibility accommodation requests.

Additional supporters:

• Burton Blatt Institute’s Office of Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach
• The Consortium for Culture and Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University
• The College of Arts and Sciences

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Biography: Elizabeth J. Donaldson, who teaches courses in bioethics and American literature and directs a minor in Medical Humanities, draws lines between Graphic Medicine, Disability Studies, and Health Humanities, focused on psychiatric disability.

Diane Wiener, Burton Blatt Institute