Saturday 10th November 2018 Main Building, Malet Street Birkbeck, University of London The Centre for Contemporary Literature is delighted to announce the programme for Transitions 8: our eighth symposium dedicated to comics and graphic narrative. Details follow. They can all be viewed as a PDF here. * Transitions was originally conceived and launched by Tony Venezia in 2010, while writing his PhD at Birkbeck. The symposium  is organised with support from the Centre for Contemporary Literature and the Department of English and Humanities. Since 2010, Transitions has become an important fixture in the landscape of UK comics studies, and increasingly also attracts participants from further afield. Our aim has been to maintain the spirit of inclusivity and support for emerging research that informed the original ethos of this event. After a brief absence in 2017, the current team: Hallvard Haug (Birkbeck), Nina Mickwitz (University of the Arts London) and John Miers (Kingston) are pleased to welcome you to Transitions 8. We are also delighted to welcome Dr. Maggie Gray (Kingston), author of Alan Moore, Out from the Underground: Cartooning, Performance and Dissent (Palgrave Macmillan 2017) as this year’s keynote speaker. You will need to make your own arrangements for refreshments and food during the day, but beyond the coffee shop just inside the Torrington Square entrance to the building, there are also various shops and cafes in the close vicinity of Birkbeck. Thanks to the generosity of the Centre for Contemporary Literature there will be a small wine reception at the end of the day, as per tradition. This event is free of charge and open to all, but in order to gauge numbers we ask that you register your attendance in advance, using this link at EventBrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transitions-8-new-directions-in-comics-studiestickets-50783275143 TRANSITIONS 8 PROGRAMME 9.30 – 10.00 Registration 10.00 – 10.20 (B20) Brief Welcomes Joe Brooker and Hallvard Haug (Birkbeck) 10.20 -11.20 Keynote by Dr. Maggie Gray (Kingston) + Q&A. Chair: John Miers. Break 10 minutes 11.30am – 1.00pm PANELS 1A AND 1B 1A Speculative fictions (532) Chair: Joe Sutliff Sanders Barbara Chamberlin (University of Brighton): ‘What Lurks Beneath: the spectral reader and the witch in comics’ Kevin Hoffin (Birmingham City University): ‘Magick as Transgression through DC/Vertigo’s “John Constantine”: An ultra-realist approach to the discussion of comics as cultural criminology’ Corinna Lenhardt (University of Münster): ‘The Final Frontier: Futurism and survivance in Indigenous sci-fi comic book stories’ 1B Maternity and comics (B20) Chair: Nicola Streeten Roundtable discussion convened by Sarah Lightman (Birkbeck). Speakers to include: Camille Aubry (Toddler Moments, A Journey to Motherhood); Francesca Cassaveti (The Most Natural Thing In The World); Dr Isabel Davis (Birkbeck) and Anna Burel (Conceiving Histories); Dr Hattie Earle (Sheffield Hallam); Karrie Fransman (The House That Groaned, Death of The Artist); Amber Hsu (Tiny Pencil, One Pound Poems); Kripa Joshi (Miss Moti); Simone Lia (Fluffy/Please God, Find Me a Husband!); Zarina Liew (Rosie and Jacinda, The Sun and The Moon); Dr. Sarah Lightman (Birkbeck, The Book of Sarah); Penelope Mendonca (Central/St Martins); Amelie Persson. 1.00 – 2.00 pm LUNCH (own arrangements) 2.00 – 3.30 PANEL 2 Power and Politics of Representation (B20) Chair: Harriet Earle Paul Fisher Davies (University of Sussex): ‘Comics and Power: Towards a critical discourse analysis for comics’ Keisha Fraser-Bruce (University of Nottingham): ‘Black Political Cartoonists: Satire, the Politics of Race and the Classification of the Black Cartoon in Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks’ Sara Gancedo Lesmes (Complutense University, Madrid ): ‘The Comic as a Revulsive: El Roto’s comic strips as counterhegemonic art’ Break 10 minutes 3.40 – 4.40 PANELS 3A and 3B 3A Autographics, truths and conceits (B20) Chair: Sarah Lightman Eszter Szép (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest): ‘Lynda Takes the Line for a Walk: Attitudes and philosophies of drawing...