Artifacts from Jack Kirby's Design for Shakespeare Play

Click here to read an article about a California college, Julius Caesar, and the King of Comics! A blast from the groovy past!

Comics News from "Bedford Bits": Big Things Coming!

Elizabeth Losh and Jonathan Alexander have posted a blog entry about using comics as historical primary sources, detailing Losh's work in a first-year college course, Media Seductions: Influence Theory from Plato to Battlefield 2. Read more about it here.

What is more exciting to me, though, is that Losh and Alexander are now going public with the news that their upcoming freshman composition textbook, Understanding Rhetoric, will soon be published by Bedford/St. Martin's. I was asked to provide feedback on this project waaaaay back when it was in script form, and did so with much interest.

It's been one of those "it's coming!" points of excitement that I've had to keep on the downlow for a couple of years now, but I'm happy to see that soon the world will know about this text, which should be a major contribution to the comics-and-education movement and to the lives and learning of many students.

UTEP Student Newspaper (The Prospector) covers EPCON!

Gene Yang joins Hamline University's MFA Program, as a Professor!

Hamline's MFAC (Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults) program is expanding to include graphic novels and comics.

Very, very cool.

For more info on Hamline University, a graduate school of liberal studies based in St. Paul, MN, click here.

Lynn University English Instructor Uses Super Heroes in Class

Great post that I saw on Comic Book Literacy's facebook page regarding Elaine Deering's class, "Comic Book Superheroes" at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Hofstra U Offering GN Course Focusing on Writing This Summer

...joins universities like Florida, Stanford, Yale, Virginia, Houston, MIT, Syracuse, etc., etc., as campuses teaching comics classes. And to think, it might be another year before I can teach a course specifically on comics. I'd rather get back in that game sooner than later, as you can imagine. :)

YouTube Video of Stumptown Comics Fest 2010's Teaching Comics Panel

This is an interesting video, though I'm not sure why. I think it tells me two things: 1. Oregon seems to be a good place for comics studies, which is important information for me as I learn whether some of my goals at UTEP can be met. 2. There are folks thinking about comics and education at the college level, but not so much about the pedagogy as much as on the very fact that people are teaching comics-related classes at the college level. (to be fair, perhaps the direct pedagogy talk just didn't make it in this video).

Stanley Fish on Graphic Novels and the College Curriculum

On his NY Times blog, Stanley Fish has recently written about his frustration with college composition classes that do not focus on grammar and rhetoric, the field's negative reaction to his critique, and the subsequent indirect support for some of his ideas from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a political group that appears to want to influence the college curriculum because college professors can't be trusted to safeguard it. In a recent report, “What Will They Learn? A Report on General Education Requirements at 100 of the Nation’s Leading Colleges and Universities,” ACTA made some suggestions on what should and shouldn't be taught.

While finding some of ACTA's ideas to his liking, Fish is worried about some of this organization's ideas. For example, when considering literature requirements, he writes:

"Things are not so clear when it comes to literature and history. Why should the literature requirement be fulfilled only by “a comprehensive literary survey” and not by single-author courses (aren’t Shakespeare and Milton “comprehensive” enough), or by a course in the theater or the graphic novel or the lyrics of Bob Dylan (all rejected in the report)? "

So a "yay!" to Stanley Fish, and a big ol' "bite it!" to ACTA.

(thanks to C for sharing this info!)

Comics in the College-Level Intensive Writing Course

As part of its most recent updates, Graphic Novel Reporter features an op-ed from a college lecturer at CSU-East Bay who uses comics in her intensive writing course, what some might remember as "remedial writing." Comics as composition? A great idea, of course!