Visual narratives are a central part of many cultures across Asia, both historically and in the present. They are fast gaining traction as media for conducting, analysing, and communicating complex research. In recent times, comics are increasingly prominent across social science, public health, and humanities scholarship–as evidenced by a growing number of academic publications. This workshop brings together researchers with backgrounds in literary studies, anthropology, visual studies, art history and practice, sociology, and other related fields to discuss synergistic approaches to this rich, hybrid medium. Our aim is to open new directions in the studies of graphic narratives, including but not limited to formal analysis, comics in teaching, and non-fiction comics.

We invite scholars and artists interested in visual storytelling, to present their work at a two-day workshop at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. The workshop aims to foster conversations on graphic narratives, particularly, comics, and their numerous conceptual and methodological possibilities. While we are interested in narratives in the Asian context, we are open to papers that explore topics that cut across regions.1

• 1. Note: By comics, we refer to a broad range of graphic narratives that tell stories through sequential art in combination with text. These include, but are not limited to, graphic novels, manga, manhwa, comic books, comic strips, web comics, and other forms of sequential art.