Catch SDSU faculty and alumna at these 2024 Comic-Con panels
SDSU will contribute to seven panels on topics that include comics in education and Black horror.
Updated 2:30 p.m. July 23, 2024
Comic-Con International is ready to take center stage in San Diego, and several San Diego State University faculty and staff have been asked to lend their expertise to the big show.
Aside from the seas of people from around the world engaged in their favorite cosplay, Comic-Con is best known for its wide array of panels showcasing everything from big upcoming movie releases to the politics of fictional universes.
This year, SDSU will be represented on the following panels:
“Just Wrapped: NEH K-12 Institute: Using Comics to Teach Social Justice”
Who: Elizabeth Pollard, co-founder of SDSU’s Center for Comics Studies; Pamela Jackson, co-director of SDSU's Center for Comics Studies; and Katherine Sciurba at the University of Georgia.
What: Faculty from the SDSU Center for Comics Studies share the curriculum of SDSU’s National Endowment for the Humanities-funded Summer Institute for K-12 Teachers, entitled “Using Comics to Teach Social Justice,” and select K-12 teachers who participated in this year’s Institute reflect on lesson plans developed over the course of the two-week Institute that wraps up with four days at Comic-Con.
When: Thursday, July 25 from 5 to 6 p.m.
Where: Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
“Afrofuturism—Black to the Future VII: CosPlay Heaven”
Who: Ajani Brown, SDSU Africana studies lecturer; Kevin Grevioux (actor, writer, director, producer, comic book publisher; creator, “Underworld” and “I, Frankenstein”); Rico Anderson (actor, “The Orville,” “Star Trek: Renegades,” “Grey's Anatomy,” “S.W.A.T.”); and Jimmy Diggs (original content producer; screenwriter, “Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”).
What: A discussion about emerging techniques in character portrayal and how Black performers and cosplayers will uniquely impact the entertainment industry.
When: Thursday, July 25 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Room 29CD
“From ‘Candyman’ to ‘The Blackening’: The Spectrum of Black Horror”
Who: Ajani Brown; Vanessa Hintz, host of the “Umm . . . About That!” Podcast; Victor Dandridge, Jr. of Vantage: Inhouse Productions; Stanford Carpenter with the Black & Brown Comix Arts Festival, and John Jennings, professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside.
What: Academics and Black content creators discuss the spectrum of Black horror, focusing on both film and TV. The panel will discuss representations of Blackness in horror and the subsequent impacts on racial identity and mental wellness.
When: Friday, July 26 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Room 10
“Comic Bans: On the Front Lines”
Who: San Diego State University Lecturer Mary Ellen Stout, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Bob Wayne, Jeff Trexler, and Dale Cendali; and, attorney Marc Greenberg.
What: Challenges to graphic novels and manga are taking place throughout the country in numbers that are sure to increase as election day draws near. Comics retailers, publishers, educators, students, and fans will share their experiences – and strategies – on the front lines of what can seem to be a never-ending battle to protect the comic arts.
When: Saturday, July 27 from 1-2 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Room 11
“Honoring Kumeyaay Nation’s Past, Present and Future Through Visual Storytelling”
Who: Ethan Banegas, SDSU American Indian studies lecturer; Michael Connolly Miskwish, Campo Kumeyaay Nation; Kumeyaay Historian, Lorraine Orosco; Kumeyaay-Ipai, education executive director for San Pasqual Band of Indians; and Stanley Rodriguez, Kumeyaay; instructor of Kumeyaay language and director of the Board at the Kumeyaay Community College.
What: Kumeyaay elders and historians have teamed up with a museum curator, a comic creator and an educator to develop a community-engaged comic that speaks from the perspective of the Kumeyaay people, on whose land Comic-Con is held every year.
When: Saturday, July 27 from 5 to 6 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Room 29AB
“One for the (Comic) Books: A Curriculum Transformed”
Who: Elizabeth Pollard; Pamela Jackson; Kishauna Soljour, SDSU assistant professor of classics and humanities; Michael Domínguez, SDSU Chicana and Chicano Studies associate professor; and an undergraduate student.
What: Faculty and a student from the SDSU Center for Comics Studies share insights from their now-completed two-year grant to develop 10 courses and a comics certificate focused on the unique power of comics to address social justice issues.
When: Sunday, July 28 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Room 26AB
“For All Mankind: Historic Fiction, Real Science”
Who: SDSU associate chemistry and biochemistry professor Laura-Isobel McCall; faculty from the University of California, San Diego and San Diego City College and scientists from the Fleet Science Center.
What: Local scientists take a look at the imagined history in Apple TV's “For All Mankind” as well as explore the science behind the upcoming space missions. What does it take to live on the moon? Is medicine ready to keep astronauts healthy and fit on long-range missions to Mars? When can we expect to use cryo-sleep technology to explore even more of our galaxy? And what does another space race mean for humanity?
When: Saturday, July 27 from 6 to 7 p.m.
Where: Convention Center Room ABC
A full lineup of Comic-Con panels can be found online.
(Updated to include an additional panel.)
