Andrea Hoff will be defending her PhD proposal at 10:00 am (Pacific Time) on Friday, April 30th virtually via Zoom.
All are welcome to attend.
Join Zoom Meeting (please arrive 5 minutes early)
Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Teresa Dobson, Supervisor
Dr. Jennifer Jenson
Dr. Kathryn Shoemaker
Dr. Marlene Asselin
Title: Future Tense: How Imagining the Future through Comics Creation Offers Youth a Unique Opportunity to Explore and Express Their Responses to the Anthropocene
Abstract:
There is a growing acceptance that we are now living in the Anthropocene—a geological epoch in which human activity has altered the earth and its systems in dramatic and catastrophic ways. While the climate crisis has profoundly deleterious impacts on the world’s eco-systems, it is also having overwhelmingly negative impacts on our mental health. This is partly due to the lack of perceived agency in our ability to affect real change in diminishing or reversing the magnitude of the crisis, and in perceiving a future that is viable for life on this planet. Moreover, there is a rising concern over how profoundly it is affecting young people. This research positions responses to the Anthropocene through a posthumanist reading of speculative comics created by youth. Posthumanism, in this sense, signifies new ways of envisioning the future, as an invitation to reconsider human-centred worldviews, and as a response to anthropocentrism. Situated in arts-based practices, specifically in the creation of speculative comics, this work explores how youth may productively imagine the future through the unique visual textual language of comics. As an arts-based approach, this research aims to explore novel modes of knowledge production, while providing space for youth to explore the emotional and embodied experiences that arise from the act of creation—ones that may provide new means of both developing and communicating their ideas about the future. This research aims to provide a site for youth to voice their concerns and the opportunity to reimagine the future from their unique perspectives.