Tilley to speak at Arts Day, Comics and Entertainment Expo

Carol Tilley
Carol Tilley, Associate Professor

Assistant Professor Carol Tilley will discuss her research into comics and comics history at two upcoming events in April.

She will deliver an invited talk titled, "When Comics Almost Died: Readers, Censors, and Innovation," at Holy Cross College’s Arts Day on April 11. Arts Day is an annual event held in celebration of the spirit of art and creativity. Tilley will be one of two speakers at the event. Other activities for the day include a student art exhibit and reception.

On April 25 Tilley will participate in the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), a convention that brings together the best of pop culture, including comics, graphic novels, and manga, as well as movies, TV, video games, and more. She will deliver a talk titled, "Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent and the Comics Code Authority at 60," and participate in a panel discussion on the topic, "Comics and the Academy: The Role of Graphic Novels in Higher Education.”

The topic of Frederic Wertham, a psychiatrist and anti-comics critic whose 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent inspired federal hearings that decimated the comic book industry, is particularly timely, as April marks the anniversary of the book's publication. "I'm especially happy to have a chance to talk about comics and censorship at Holy Cross and C2E2 as it's the sixtieth anniversary—to the month—of both the publication of Wertham's book and the opening days of the Senate's hearings on comics books and juvenile delinquency," Tilley said. "Despite the passage of time, these events are still vividly part of comics readers and creators consciences."

At GSLIS, Tilley teaches courses in comics’ reader’s advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship. Part of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of young people, comics, and libraries, particularly in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Additional research interests include history of youth services librarianship, children's print culture, information inquiry and instruction in school libraries, information seeking and use, and media literacy. Tilley’s research has been published in journals including the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children’s Literature in Education. Her research on anti-comics advocate Fredric Wertham has been featured in the New York Times and other media outlets.

Tags:
Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Knox appointed interim dean

Professor Emily Knox has been appointed to serve as interim dean of the School of Information Sciences, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be interim dean designate. The appointment will begin April 1, 2025.

Emily Knox

iSchool instructors ranked as excellent

Fifty-six iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2024 and Winter 2024-2025. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the ratings from the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

iSchool Building

Ocepek and Sanfilippo co-edit book on misinformation

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo have co-edited a new book, Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press. An open access edition of the book is available, thanks to support from the Governing Knowledge Commons Research Coordination Network (NSF 2017495). The new book explores the socio-technical realities of misinformation in a variety of online and offline everyday environments. 

Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons book

Faculty receive support for AI-related projects from new pilot program

Associate Professor Yun Huang, Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma, and Assistant Professor Haohan Wang have received computing resources from the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a two-year pilot program led by the National Science Foundation in partnership with other federal agencies and nongovernmental partners. The goal of the pilot is to support AI-related research with particular emphasis on societal challenges. Last month, awardees presented their research at the NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting.

iSchool participation in iConference 2025

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2025, which will be held virtually from March 11-14 and physically from March 18-22 in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference is "Living in an AI-gorithmic world."