AUP graduation ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Department of French Studies and Modern Languages & The AUP Library

Festival de la Bande dessinée: Catriona MacLeod: Inaugural Conference

University Room: Judith Hermanson Ogilvie Grand Salon (C-102)
Wednesday, March 15, 2023 - 17:00 to 19:30

"Drawing Invisible Women: The Complicated History of the Bande Dessinée's Female Figures."

Catriona MacLeod, author of "Invisible Presence: the Representation of Women in French-language Comics" will discuss the history of female representation in the bande dessinée medium, the difficulties even celebrated artists have expressed with drawing women, and the ways in which the drawn landscape is finally changing.

This conference marks the inauguration of AUP's first FESTIVAL BD (French Comics and Graphic Novels Festival) which will include an exhibition of BD albums in the library's atrium, around this year's theme: "Is the Franco-Belgian BD sexist?". A reading corner and workshops by guest artists will also be available for interested students and staff.

Bio:

Catriona Macleod is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of London Institute in Paris. Her research interests concern representations of women in bandes dessinées and narratives of trauma and migration in visual forms. She is the author of Invisible Presence: The Representation of Women in French-Language Comics (Intellect, 2021) and has published in journals such as L’Esprit Créateur, Contemporary French Civilisation and European Comic Art. Her current research project focuses on contemporary female artists’ use of the bande dessinée as a form of political and social activism aiming to break entrenched female bodily “taboos”.