Comic Art Working Group - Call for Proposals 2023

The Comic Art Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites proposals for IAMCR 2023, to be held in Lyon, France, from 9 to 13 July (Lyon23) with an Online Conference Papers (OCP23) component from 26 June to 5 July.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 9 February 2023 at 23h59 UTC.

See the CfPs of all sections and working groups >

Conference themes

IAMCR conferences have a main conference theme that is explored from multiple perspectives throughout the conference in plenaries and other moments, including the programmes of the thematic sections and working groups. Additionally, each section and working group also defines some of its own themes, which are described in their individual calls for proposals. Proposals for contributions to the conference are submitted to the sections and working groups and may focus on an aspect of the main conference theme as it relates to the concerns of the section or working group, or address a theme identified by the section or working group.

Main theme – Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond

The main theme for IAMCR 2023, “Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond”, is concerned with possibilities for rethinking communication research agendas at a time when the irreversible effects of climate change is compounded by stark geopolitical, sociocultural and religious tensions in human communities. At this juncture, urgent reflection and research is needed on how we can hope to flourish today and in the future, and also how media and communication tools and environments can be positive forces and spaces for change.

Five sub-themes of this central theme have been identified: Humanity and progress; democracy; media, information and communication; cities and territories; and environmental accountability.

Consult a detailed description of the main theme and its sub-themes

The Comic Art Working Group is committed to an interdisciplinary approach that could enrich the academic dialogue. We welcome academic works that expand the topics of our field and bring news and current perspectives of research.

Following the main theme of the conference, the Comic Art Working Group invites submissions relating to it as well as papers addressing the following (but not limited to):

Comic and pandemic
Graphic medicine
Comics as a didactic tool
Environmental comics
Comic and social responsibility
Comic and gender
Political communication in comic
Comic and migration
Political cartoons
Emergent platforms for comic creation and distribution
Webcomics
Preservation of the comic’s cultural heritage
Comics journalism
Comic books and libraries
Semiotics of comics and cartoons
Hermeneutics of comics
Comics and graphic novels
Manga and anime
Animation
Virtual Reality
Comics and Visual Culture

Academic and independent scholars are equally welcome to collaborate. We also welcome submissions from early career researchers and veteran scholars alike.

To keep the dialogue flowing, we have created a page for the group on Facebook. Feel free to join us! https://www.facebook.com/groups/iamcrcomicartwg

We are excited to announce that the Best Paper Award continues: the author/s of the best paper presented in the congress will have the opportunity to publish it in the International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA), the legendary publication of Dr. John Lent.

Contributing to the conference: Lyon23 and OCP23

There will be two ways of joining IAMCR2023:

If you are not able to or don’t want to join the face-to-face conference in Lyon but do want to submit an online-only paper, submit your abstract to OCP23 only. If accepted, you’ll later submit your full paper to the online platform, which will be open for discussion from 26 June to 5 July.
If you do want to join the face-to-face event, submit your abstract to Lyon23 and OCP23. If accepted you’ll submit your paper to the online platform and present it at the face-to-face conference.

Guidelines for abstracts

Abstracts of contributions should have between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted online here. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.

It is expected that authors will submit only one abstract. However, under no circumstances should an author submit more than two abstracts as a single author or as the lead author of a co-authored paper, and no author will submit more than one abstract to the Comic Art Working Group. The same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Any such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected.

Proposals are accepted for both single Papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme). Proposals for panels can only be submitted to Lyon23 and OCP23. Panel submissions must include an abstract for each paper submitted here and a description & supplemental information submitted via this form on the conference website

The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2023 at 23h59 UTC.

See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind