Associate Director for Digital Learning and Research Nhora Lucía Serrano presented in a roundtable discussion on “Best Practices in Comics Scholarly Publishing” at the 2nd Annual Comics Studies Society (CSS) Conference. The event took place this summer at Ryerson University in Toronto.
As the co-editor of the new book series Crossing Lines: Transcultural/Transnational Comics Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Serrano shared with new and mid-career scholars how book proposals need to be clear, concise, and demonstrate the marketability in the field. She also provided tips on how to write a book proposal.
In addition, Serrano discussed how Crossing Lines, headed by three women from Canada, the U.S., and New Zealand — a first in the field of comics — was a product of their many conversations at various comics conferences.
As treasurer of the CSS, Serrano served on the year-long conference committee which granted the first #womenonpanels conference travel awards to female-identified and non-binary graduate students and contingent faculty. She presented the awards during a conference ceremony in which she recounted the history of these new awards in the comics scholarly field.
She explored how on February 24, she and other women took advantage of Twitter as an intersectional feminist space by addressing gender inequality in comics studies using #womenonpanels. Serrano said that women from around the world shared short descriptions of their work and recognized other women who inspired them by tweeting with the hashtag.
As stated on the CSS website, “the #womenonpanels initiative builds on this social media origin, asking everyone in comics studies, but especially those editing collections or putting together conference panels, to ‘read, cite, and invite’ women and people of marginalized gender identities.”
Serrano noted that the awards were funded by sales of a T-shirt based on ideas that emerged during the event.
