Comic books as the voice of survivors
To understand how these stories come to life in images, SPUI25 is organizing the event Visualizing Survivors' Voices on June 18. During this evening, the perspectives of witnesses, artists, and researchers will be highlighted to show how personal stories about mass violence are recorded and shared in comic books. The event is part of the international research project Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives, which investigates how survivors of genocide and other mass violence can depict their experiences in dialogue with comic artists. One example is a Syrian war refugee who recorded his story together with an artist. What does it mean to tell such stories in comic form? And how can they help us to better understand violence and memory?
About the speakers
Various speakers will talk about the subject from their own background and expertise. Two of the speakers are NIOD researchers Kees Ribbens and Uğur Ümit Üngör. Kees has a keen interest in how wars and genocides are remembered and represented and is an avid reader of graphic novels. Uğur's areas of interest are genocide and mass violence, with a particular focus on the modern and contemporary Middle East. He is also co-leader of the Iraq & Syria research cluster in the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives Project. The other speakers are Akram al-Saud, survivor of the Syrian regime and former architecture student from Aleppo, Andrea Webb, lecturer at the University of British Columbia and co-director of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives Project, Charlotte Schallié, professor at the University of Victoria and project leader of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives Project, and Tobi Dahmen, comic artist and illustrator, known for Fahrradmod and Columbusstrasse, among others.
This international project follows on from an earlier collaboration between witnesses, researchers, and comic artists, which focused on storytelling through images and education about the Holocaust and human rights. This collaboration recently resulted in two comic books: But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Emmie Arbel. The Color of Memory.
More information can be found on the SPUI25 website.