BIPOC Comics, Community, and Counter-Narratives

In this episode, distinguished professor and comix scholar, Dr. Frederick Luis Aldama, introduces three distinguished scholars and creators: Dr. Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado, Dr. Deborah Whaley, and Dr. Fernanda Diaz Basteris, and together they discuss their personal and academic journeys into comic studies, frequently noting the lack of existing scholarship on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) narratives in sequential art, which initially motivated their research. They also address their challenges faced as women of color working in an academic field often dominated by white men, including issues of gatekeeping and justifying their focus on Latinx and Black comics. Ultimately, they affirm the importance of studying and teaching BIPOC comics as a crucial practice of equity, justice, and cultural preservation, celebrating the various genres and visual forms used to "ink our humanity."