- How does art help us understand what borders do to people, and how people react to them?
- In what ways can art cross or challenge borders?
- What stories can be told through art and in what ways can researchers work together with artists in research on borders and their human consequences?
In this seminar we gather art practitioners and academics for a conversation about these questions, focusing on comic art and animation. This art form is extremely versatile and has been used to tell powerful stories about migration, refugees and borders as well as serving as a tool for research and dissemination.
Program
12.00 – 12.05 Welcome
Jørgen Carling, Research Professor
12.05 – 12.25 Threads. A comic book description of the life and people of the unofficial Calais refugee camp, the “Jungle”.
Kate Evans, cartoonist, author and public speaker
12.25 – 12.45 Victims of Borders. Animation as a tool to tell stories about the war in Syria.
Wael Toubaji, animation artist
12.45 – 12.55 Comments on the power of storytelling through art in research on refugees – both as methodological and dissemination tool.
Cindy Horst, Research Professor
12.55 – 13.05 Comments on how Arab comic artists have treated the issue of borders during and after the Arab Spring in 2011.
Jacob Høigilt, Senior Researcher
13.05 – 13.30 Q & A
A light lunch will be served.
Kate Evans
Kate Evans is a cartoonist, author and public speaker. Her latest project is Threads, a cartoon reportage from a brief stint volunteering at the Calais ‘refugee camp’. Among her other works is Red Rosa, the graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg, released by Verso in 2017, which was selected as a ‘graphic book of the year’ choice by both the Independent and Observer newspapers.
Wael Toubaji
Wael Toubaji is an animation artist who works on subjects related to human rights and conflicts. Besides working on animation projects about the disappeared people in Colombia and LGBTI rights in Uganda he has worked on many projects about the Syrian tragedy, including “A Perilous Journey” (2015) and “Islamic State’s Most Wanted”, the winner of Reason Media Awards in 2016.
