Recent Activities:

2011

The exhibition Subversive Visual Communication: Détournement is open at the Tarble Art Center. Three years in the planing with Dr. Eskilson, the show chronicles the enduring influence of the Situationist International on graphic design and graphic narrative.

Attended the Halloween reverse trick or treating at Stevenson Dormitory in my new role as Faculty Fellow.

Presented my research from India at the ICGD Symposium.

Attended the excellent and inspiring faculty development workshop Imagining Japan: Literatures, Arts, and Religions in Chicago hosted by ASDP from the East West Center and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Received my fifth Redden Grant for Educational Instruction to support work in our Digital Media Lab.

Back from India. Great experience. See my photos here.

I was been accepted to the ASIANetwork Faculty Development Program to India this Summer.

At long last my book on the history of graphic narrative is finished. See it here on Amazon.

2010

Attended the festival of Cartoon Art at the University of Ohio at Columbus. Heard Art Speigleman, and Bill Griffith speak and had a chance to see the original art for R. Crumb’s Genesis.

Curated the William Hubschmitt Retrospective Exhibition at the Tarble Art Center

Attended the faculty development workshop Chinese Ways: History, Philosophy, Religion, Art and Medicine at Missouri State University, March 25th-27th.

Presented a paper at the national College Art Association Conference in Chicago on “Speaking in Emanata: Navigating the Conceptual Gulf between Comics and Narrative Art.”

2009

Attended the ICAF conference in Chicago.

Visited the prints collection at the Library of Congress and looked over first edition History of Holy Russia by Doré. On the way home dropped by the Comic Research library in Columbus Ohio.

Attended a workshop on developing and testing new instructional methods called, “Is it Working? How to Determine Whether a Teaching Strategy is Working Well” presented by Barbara Walvoord, PhD.

Attended the ASIANetwork conference in Lisle, IL.

Presented a workshop on the Archive Paradigm Instruction Process for the Materials and Methods Conference at EIU.

Lectured on Kente cloth for the Wrapped In Pride Exhibition at the Booth Library.

My essay on the “ Acoustics of Manga” was republished in the Comics Studies Reader, University Press of Mississippi.

2008

Moved into the new Dounda Fine Art Center. It’s great to have a new home after so many years as an itinerant player.

Retuned from a week in Eastham Cape Cod. Went to visit the Comic Book exhibition at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.

Confirmed as Associate Professor of Art and Theatre at EIU.

Attended the National Popular Culture Association Conference in San Francisco and presented a paper on “A General Theory of Sound in Comics.”

Over Spring Break my family made a trek to Cape Canaveral to see a night time space shuttle launch and a tour of the Disney World parks. We also took in a very exciting show by Cirque du Soleil.

Presented a paper at the National Asian Studies Development conference in Chicago on the interactions between new and old media in Indonesia with the advent and eventual collapse of wayang comics.

2007

Attended the Asian Film Festival in Champaign with students from my Non-Western Fine Arts course. I was a member of the film selection committee and I was asked to write a brief introduction for the Malaysian film Sepet and say a few words before the film was shown.

Published an article on Sound in Japanese Manga in the International Journal of Comic Art. Volume 9, no. 1. This article has also been selected for inclusion in the forthcoming anthology of Comic Art Scholarship published by the University of Mississippi Press.

Presented a paper on the Metamorphosis of the Phylactery in British Satirical Prints at the International Comic Art Forum, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Attended the Small Press Expo in Washington, DC.

Attended the WIZARD WORLD Comic Convention in Chicago.

Attended the AsiaNetwork Conference just west of Chicago in the town of Lisle.

Began recording my thoughts and impressions of class discussions in my new blog Image, Stage, & Text (see the link above).

 

Presented a paper on “Polarizing Popular Culture” which examined the recent Danish cartoon controversy in light of past riots in Asia over cartoons. At the Asian Studies Development Conference in Seattle, WA.

 

Attended the South Asian Art Conference in San Francisco Asian Art Museum,

Attended a workshop on Teaching Japan at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway.

 

Presented a paper on the “Acoustics of Manga” at the International Comic Art Festival that is now slated for publication in the International Comic Art Journal in the spring.

 

2006

The long awaited publication of the Encyclopedia on Asian Theatre from Greenwood Press has finally arrived. I have yet to see my copy but at two huge volumes it should be spectacular. My contributions are Characters and role types in south asian theatre, a history of ancient and traditional theatre in South Asia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and a few others that escape my memory.

 

Currently working on a number of masks for the up coming production of the Love of Three Oranges at CAT. Its been years since I made masks and this is the first time I have undertaken to make commedia characters.

 

Puppet theaters shown at the Charleston Alley Theatre during the run of the production Dracula.

 

Awarded the Faculty Development Grant to attend the International Comic Arts Festival. While in DC I also attended a lecture by Frank J. Korom on the patua story painters of West Bengal. His new book on the subject is quite fascinating.

 

Interviewed for the Daily Eastern News on the History of Graphic Narratives.

 

EIU Uncovered Lecture: How To Read a Graphic Novel

September 6th, University Ballroom, MLK Union, 8PM.

 

International Comic Arts Festival (ICAF)

OCTOBER 12-14, 2006. Washington, D.C. The Library of Congress, James Madison Building.

 

Illinois Arts Alliance’s Two for One: Building Leadership Skills through Mentoring, Chicago Cultural Center. 20 July 2006.

 

Book discussion for the Asian Heritage Month. Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting.

 

Co-sponsored a proposal to form an Asian Studies Minor at Easter Illinois University, which was approved by Committee of Academic Affairs on April 20th, 2006.

 

presented a brown bag lecture on Echos from Manga: The Visible Soundscape of Japanese Comics for the Asian Heritage Month Celebration at Eastern Illinois University.

 

Presented a paper on pedagogical approaches to teaching about narrative art in Southeast Asia for the Asian Studies Development National conference in Nashville, TN, April 19th.

 

Presented a paper on Feminist analysis of Prambanan Temple complex in Java at the College Art Association in Boston, MA, February 22nd.