St Mary’s to Host Graphic Justice Symposium

On Wednesday 11th September 2013 St Mary’s University College is hosting a free one-day symposium entitled ‘Graphic Justice.’ The conference will explore the intersection of comics and graphic fiction with the concerns of law and justice. Comics and graphic fiction represent an expanding dimension of today’s global popular culture and are a richly innovative form of expression. They are also rife with themes relevant to law and justice, from copyright to freedom of expression; from the justice themes of superhero narratives to the more nuanced examinations of the human condition in less mainstream graphic works; from the blurring of text and image in the comics form itself to diverse representations of morality and law on its pages. Comics and graphic fiction have been receiving increased academic attention in recent years, with dedicated journals and conferences springing up around the world. Yet their significance with respect to the concerns of law and justice has received little critical attention. As a development of existing disciplinary fields such as law and popular culture, law and literature, and legal aesthetics, graphic justice aims to increase legal engagement with this richly complex cultural medium. St Mary’s Law Lecturer Dr Thom Giddens, who has organised the symposium commented, “The symposium is a great opportunity for interested people to get together and start to develop our critical understanding of the relationship between comics and justice. There has been a lot of interest in the graphic justice project already; it seems there are comic fans dotted throughout the legal academy. The project will hopefully give them something to rally around.” The free event is open to the public and is being held at St Mary’s Strawberry Hill campus. For more information and to book your place, please contact Dr Thomas Giddens on thomas.giddens@stmarys.ac.uk