Comics School

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"As an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar concerned with real and imagined urban landscapes, I integrate an historical understanding into investigations of contemporary culture.

My work is framed around a central question: What does it mean to be a scholar in the twentieth-first century? Informed by a community engagement framework that emphasizes the Classroom as Platform, I pursue a public humanity practice that supports student learning and community action."

We continue our conversation with Professor John Jennings about his work along with Dr. Damian Duffy on adapting the work of Octavia E. Butler as well as his forthcoming horror anthology Box of Bones. You don't wanna miss this one.

JOHN JENNINGS is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of the Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Jennings is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings' current projects include the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), and the Eisner-winning, Bram Stoker Award-winning, New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler's classic dark fantasy novel Kindred. Jennings is also founder and curator of the ABRAMS Megascope line of graphic novels.

Donna-lyn Washington is adjunct-lecturer of English at Kingsborough Community College, and she is also senior editor and senior writer at ReviewFix. She has contributed to Reconsidering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays, published by University Press of Mississippi, as well as entries to the Encyclopedia of Black Comics.

Christopher P. Lehman is a professor of ethnic studies at St. Cloud State University, a former summer visiting fellow at Harvard University, and the author of many books including The Colored Cartoon: Black Presentation in American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954.

Sheena C. Howard is an Associate Professor of Communication at Rider University. Howard is an award-winning author, filmmaker and scholar, including a 2014 Eisner Award winner for her first book, Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation (2013). She is also the author of Black Queer Identity Matrix (2014, Critical Articulations of Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation (2014) and Encyclopedia of Black Comics (2017). Howard is co-writer of the critically acclaimed sci-fi comic book, Superb (issues 1 - 9).

Originally from the Bronx, and having received his training and Ph.D. from Fordham University, Dr. Napoleon Wells began his professional career as an post-traumatic stress disorder treatment specialist with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Wells is now a faculty member with the Department of Social Sciences at Claflin University.

Dr. Wells has worked extensively in the areas of emotional wellness, graduate school preparation, anxiety/stress management, and in psychologically conceptualizing and combating racism.

Jiba Molei Anderson is the owner of Griot Enterprises and creator of its flagship property The Horsemen. Mr. Anderson is also a part of the fine art community featured in the book Black Comix and guest lecturing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art with The Horsemen’s inclusion in The Smithsonian’s permanent library. https://www.griotenterprises.com/