In 2018, Birgit Weyhe joined a room of German comics scholars at a GSA (German Studies Association) panel on diversity and inclusion in German-language comics to bear witness to a presentation by Dr. Brett Sterling that openly criticized her graphic novel Madgermanes (2016) for its representation of Blackness and cultural appropriation. While this commentary was far from welcome, it marked the start of the author’s journey in revaluating her power and privilege as a comics artist. Soon thereafter, Weyhe met with Dr. Priscilla Layne, an Associate Professor of German Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill with Caribbean roots. Over the next several years, Weyhe and Layne collaborated on the graphic novel Rude Girl (2022), which focuses on Layne's growing up in Chicago, her experiences with racism, and her path to studying German, while questioning what it means for a white artist to depict the lives of black people.

This panel will take the form of a conversation with the co-creators of Rude Girl, discussing Layne and Weyhe’s collaboration and the role of comics in intersectional explorations of Black identity.

Participants: Birgit Weyhe, German Graphic Novelist and Priscilla Layne, Associate Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill
Moderator: Biz Nijdam, Assistant Professor, UBC
Language: In English
Date: Friday, October 6, 2023
Time: 1:00 PM (PDT)

Free admission - RSVP required. RSVP here

This event is co-sponsored by the German Studies Association's Comics Studies Network, the UBC Comic Studies Cluster, and the Department of Classics, Modern Languages, and Linguistics at Concordia University.