Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ReCOLLECTED (Recollected: History, Memory and Imagination in Contemporary Greek Comics and Graphic Novels)
Reporting period: 2023-01-09 to 2025-01-08
Approaching Greek graphic novels as a site for both artistic innovation and social critique, ReCOLLECTED shed light on ways in which comics can inform our views on present-day cultural landscapes and engage with broader social issues pertaining to the role of popular culture and cultural heritage in shaping identity and redrawing the boundaries of national belonging. The aim of the project was two-fold. Firstly, it aimed to assess what led to the boom of comics in the Greek cultural field over the past decade and identify shared patterns and characteristics of these comics. Secondly, the project then used this data to propose categories and conceptual tools that comics can offer for cultivating alternative visions on both past and present. In order to reach these aims, ReCOLLECTED combined insights gained through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with close-readings of specific cultural texts. The project’s communication and dissemination activities engaged the scientific community, comics artists, research MA and PhD students as well as non-specialist audiences, in order to integrate their perspectives into the R&I agenda and ensure that the project’s results are relevant and accessible to wide range of stakeholders. Over the period of two years, ReCOLLECTED resulted in a number of scientific and non-specialist publications, including individual articles and edited collections, establishment of a research group and development of two international collaborations that will last beyond the duration of the project.
ReCOLLECTED aimed to assess comics’ role in the Greek cultural field over the past decade and use this data to propose categories and conceptual tools that comics can offer for cultivating alternative visions on historical past, cultural memory and perceptions of the present. To achieve this goal, the project: 1) critically examined and assessed thematic and formal aspects of contemporary Greek comics and the dialogues they established with other art forms that also rose to prominence during the past decade; 2) engaged comics artists as co-creators of R&I agenda through interviews and collaborative work (ten interviews including fifteen artists completed); 3) used the data obtained in 1) and 2) in order to propose new ways in which comics and graphic novels can be used as forms of visualizing, archiving and systematizing knowledge (two scientific articles, two edited collections, an interview and a podcast aimed at wider audiences, a masterclass for research students and a public event during comics festival); 4) produced a model theoretical framework for integrating ethnographic fieldwork, visual and textual data and cultural analysis that could be used more broadly for research beyond the specific case study
Main scientific outcomes and actions:
1. Book chapter 'Restorying the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange and the Partition of India and Palestine through Graphic Narrative: Hand-Drawn Lines, Embroidered Histories, Portable Homelands' in The Palgrave Handbook of European Migration in Literature and Culture (ed. Corina Stan and Charlotte Sussman, 2024, https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/183458277/978-3-031-30784-3_31.pdf(opens in new window))
2. Journal article 'Mapping Resistance in Contemporary Greece: From Critical Vocabularies to Contemporary Cityscapes´(forthcoming, 2026)
3. Special collection Comics, Memory, Activism in the journal Memory, Mind & Media (co-edited with Vasiliki Belia and Clara Vlessing and forthcoming, 2026)
4. Section on Mixed Media and Public Art (co-edited with Maria Boletsi) in the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict, including a co-written introduction to section (forthcoming, 2025)
5. Book proposal (publication planning in progress)
6. Eleven presentations sharing project results at international events and conferences
7. Co-founding of a research group ASCA Comics Studies
8. Organisation of the Comics Study Day (full programme available here: https://aihr.uva.nl/content/events/2024/11/comics(opens in new window))
Main scientific outcomes and actions:
1. Book chapter 'Restorying the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange and the Partition of India and Palestine through Graphic Narrative: Hand-Drawn Lines, Embroidered Histories, Portable Homelands' in The Palgrave Handbook of European Migration in Literature and Culture (ed. Corina Stan and Charlotte Sussman, 2024, https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/183458277/978-3-031-30784-3_31.pdf(opens in new window))
2. Journal article 'Mapping Resistance in Contemporary Greece: From Critical Vocabularies to Contemporary Cityscapes´(forthcoming, 2026)
3. Special collection Comics, Memory, Activism in the journal Memory, Mind & Media (co-edited with Vasiliki Belia and Clara Vlessing and forthcoming, 2026)
4. Section on Mixed Media and Public Art (co-edited with Maria Boletsi) in the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict, including a co-written introduction to section (forthcoming, 2025)
5. Book proposal (publication planning in progress)
6. Eleven presentations sharing project results at international events and conferences
7. Co-founding of a research group ASCA Comics Studies
8. Organisation of the Comics Study Day (full programme available here: https://aihr.uva.nl/content/events/2024/11/comics(opens in new window))
The project: 1) uniquely paired theoretical analysis and close-reading with ethnographic method, incorporating comics artists and their perspectives into the study; 2) opened new pathways for social engagement through collaborative work with Greek comics artists; 3) built an innovative framework for studying comics as a meaning-making and knowledge-producing cultural form; 4) brought the medium of comics to bear on wider debates on contemporary Greek culture; 5) opened new perspectives by óffering the first comprehensive study of Greek comics available in the English language and first study in any language that approaches contemporary Greek graphic novels through a multi-perspectival interdisciplinary framework that brings together cultural and social questions.
Main project impacts:
1. Impact on education and learning, offering research MA and PhD students new tools for approaching their research questions in literary and cultural studies through comics (OSL Masterclass Comics/Literature Crossroads: Genres, Forms, Narratives https://www.oslit.nl/masterclass-literature-comics-crossroads-genres-forms-narratives/(opens in new window))
2. Impact on society, empowering people to share their everyday stories as well as observe and record their environment through comics (live-sketching workshop during LA Comics Festival in the city of Larissa, Greece; urban sketching workshop with Tânia A. Cardoso during Comics Study Day)
3. Impact on society, sharing knowledge on the ways in which comics can provide new perspectives on important social issues and debates, such as forced migration or environmental damage (Tragi-comics podcast for the Lausanne Project https://thelausanneproject.com/2023/03/24/podcast-episode-29-tragi-comics/(opens in new window) MSCA Launch Event, double-book presentation with the authors of two graphic novels Out of Shadows (Antipodes, 2024) and Skouries (Ekdoseis tou Kampou, 2024), which took place during Comics Study Day)
Main project impacts:
1. Impact on education and learning, offering research MA and PhD students new tools for approaching their research questions in literary and cultural studies through comics (OSL Masterclass Comics/Literature Crossroads: Genres, Forms, Narratives https://www.oslit.nl/masterclass-literature-comics-crossroads-genres-forms-narratives/(opens in new window))
2. Impact on society, empowering people to share their everyday stories as well as observe and record their environment through comics (live-sketching workshop during LA Comics Festival in the city of Larissa, Greece; urban sketching workshop with Tânia A. Cardoso during Comics Study Day)
3. Impact on society, sharing knowledge on the ways in which comics can provide new perspectives on important social issues and debates, such as forced migration or environmental damage (Tragi-comics podcast for the Lausanne Project https://thelausanneproject.com/2023/03/24/podcast-episode-29-tragi-comics/(opens in new window) MSCA Launch Event, double-book presentation with the authors of two graphic novels Out of Shadows (Antipodes, 2024) and Skouries (Ekdoseis tou Kampou, 2024), which took place during Comics Study Day)