The Graphic Medicine International Collective has hosted the yearly Graphic Medicine Conference (GMC) since 2010 for cartoonists, clinicians, and educators whose work aligns with health humanities concepts and health comics. This year’s meeting was held at Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) Homewood and East Campuses in Baltimore, Maryland from July 23 – 25 and marked my first time attending. Over 300 attendees convened to address “Health Graphic Narratives Under Pressure”* – the theme that couldn’t have made better sense at this time of unrest and uncertainty in the health information and medical research landscape.
*Of course David Bowie and Queen were in my head all weekend.
The Conference Program
The agenda included keynote, panel, workshop, and lightning talk presentations that conveyed the importance of the continued development and proliferation of health comics as a primary medium for communication to improve health literacy and reduce health disparities. My favorite sessions included content that will help me to teach and train students to become better health information consumers and communicators and to develop ZSR’s small but mighty Graphic Medicine Collection
The sessions of interest covered during the conference included:
- Best Practices for Integrating Scientific Information Into Graphic Medicine
- Queer Joy and Protests in Health Landscapes
- Health Literacy and Patient-Facing Interventions
- The ABC’s of Vaccines
- Voices for Justice in Medical Research
- Navigating Healthcare with Graphic Medicine
- Graphic Medicine for Public Health
As one of about 20 librarians in attendance, I presented on the Graphic Zine assignment in LIB270 Health Science Information Foundations and Evolution where students develop an 8-page comic book (or zine) to communicate a message using health literacy concepts.
Also, check out the progression of this crowdsourced artwork created throughout the conference depicting challenges and solutions in Graphic Medicine work and creating health narratives. Thirty feet long and 100% hand-drawn – WOW! Libraries made their appearance on the solutions side of the banner (of course). Be sure to zoom in to see details!
Special Production of Aliceheimer’s: A Chamber Opera for the GMC
This year’s GMC attendees had the opportunity to witness a special performance of Aliceheimer’s, a chamber opera based on the graphic memoir Aliceheimer’s: Alzheimer’s Through the Looking Glass by Dana Walrath. Taking place in Hurd Hall, JHU’s historic anatomy dissection theatre, the performance included a discussion panel with performers from the JHU Peabody Institute, the graphic memoir’s author, and the opera’s composer, Erik Nielsen. Not a typical opera-enthusiast, I am grateful for this unique treat and experience that fostered an understanding of caregiving for someone with Alzheimer’s disease via the use of the graphic medium.
Next Stop: Italy!
Attendance at the GMC offered excellent health humanities-centric experiences and next steps in refining the Graphic Zine assignment and related formative exercises to offer students. I look forward to future opportunities to attend. Historically, the conference has taken place in the United States every two-three years and will occur in Bologna, Italy next June. Ciao!
4 Comments on ‘Colleen at the Graphic Medicine Conference – Johns Hopkins University’
This is wonderful to read about! graphics/medicine/librarians! I had no idea and absolutely love the connection with these three ‘not often paired together’ disciplines. thank you!
Thank you for sharing, Colleen. This sounds like the coolest conference ever (growing up I wanted to be an illustrator)!!!
This is perhaps one of the coolest conferences I’ve ever heard of! Thanks for sharing with us and for sharing your work with other graphic medicine enthusiasts!
I love any intersection of science with the arts and librarianship, of course! What an amazing experience! Thank you for sharing, Colleen.