International conference – Ghent University, 18-19 September 2025
GUM, Forum room, Karel Lodewijk Ledeganckstraat 35
The study of comics as a visual and cultural medium has increasingly drawn attention to the ways in which gender, power, and spectatorship shape representation. Since Laura Mulvey’s seminal work on the male gaze (1975), scholars have expanded and challenged this framework, applying it to various media, including comics. Comics, with their unique interplay of text and image, offer a fertile ground for exploring gendered ways of seeing, as demonstrated by the works of feminist and queer theorists (Chute 2010; Darieck and Fawaz 2012).
Recent scholarship has examined how comics negotiate cultural and ideological perspectives across transnational contexts, particularly in relation to the dominance of American visual culture in Western Europe (Beaty 2007; Denson et al. 2013; Grove 2019; Comberiati and Spadaro 2023). The notion of the gaze has further complicated discussions of gender and representation, emphasizing the interconnectedness of national and transnational media industries (Banet-Weiser 2018; Moe 2019). Meanwhile, research on intermediality in comics (Ripple and Etter, 2013; Baetens and Frey 2015) has explored how comics interact with other visual cultures, from cinema to digital platforms, reinforcing or challenging hegemonic models of looking. These interconnections highlight the fluidity of visual narratives and the ways in which different media and cultural traditions shape the act of looking.
Comics, as a profoundly visual medium, are central to these discussions. Shaped by cultural and ideological perspectives on gender, power, and representation, they function as both a site of contestation and a vehicle for dominant narratives. Starting from the early 20th century, European comics have been influenced by American culture and comics, resulting in a process of both Americanisation and domestication of US productions. This influence has not only affected genre – with the superhero genre being at the forefront – but also the way gender is portrayed and gender roles perceived. As an entertainment product often featured in the children’s press and associated with childhood, comics are a powerful medium through which gender is constructed, and gender norms are disseminated.
This conference explores how the act of looking – whether through the male gaze, female gaze, or queer gaze – operates in comics across national and transnational contexts (you can see the program here, or download the pdf here). How do comics construct, reinforce, or challenge gendered ways of seeing? In what ways has American visual culture influenced the global framing of gender in comics, particularly in Western Europe, where the American comic model has dominated for decades? How have European comics responded to or resisted these influences, and how does this interplay shape the way gender is portrayed in different cultural contexts?
Organizing committee
Prof. Maaheen Ahmed (Ghent University)
Dr. Manuela Di Franco (Ghent University/Trinity College Dublin)
Dr. Giorgio Busi Rizzi (Ghent University)
Scientific committee
Prof. Maaheen Ahmed (Ghent University)
Dr. Giorgio Busi Rizzi (Ghent University)
Dr. Manuela Di Franco (Ghent University/Trinity College Dublin)
Dr. Lorenzo Di Paola (ULB)
Dr. Nicoletta Mandolini (University of Minho)