Thursday, June 4, 2009

Create a Comic Project at SOPHE 2009!

In a significant move, the Create a Comic Project has earned its first invitation to a major academic conference: the Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE) 60th Annual Meeting!

I'll be doing a 15 minute oral presentation on the concept of "picturevoice:" recording the thoughts and perspectives of individuals in a population using art. I'll be discussing two comic project events: the National Public Health Week April 2008 events and Healthy Holidays from December 2008. As the conference is geared to health education, I'll be focusing on the known educational benefits of the comic project.

The concept of "picturevoice" is an expansion on the idea of "photovoice," which relies solely on photography. Picturevoice can use any visual art, such as painting, though I've used it mainly with sequential art; I call this subset "comicvoice."

With any luck, this first introduction to the broader academic world may help the project expand its reach to education researchers across the country. I'm especially hoping to establish some collaborations with other educators.

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