Conference Program

Attendance at the Monstrous Women in Comics Conference requires registration except where otherwise noted. REGISTER NOW!

Thursday, May 25th Eagle Exhibit Hall, EESAT, UNT Campus:
·        Pop-Up Art Exhibit and welcome drinks reception for conference participants. 5:30-7:30pm (come and go as you please). The exhibit will feature art from the comic Deer Woman produced by Native Realities Press. **Open to the public** 



Friday, May 26th Willis 140, Willis Library, UNT Campus:

Coffee & pastries for conference participants (9:00 am)

Welcome & Conference Overview (9:15 am)

Panel One: Monstrous Bodies (9:30 am)

Chair: Sam Langsdale

Stefanie Snider, “The Unremarkable Fatness of Valiant’s Faith

Charlotte Johanne Fabricius, “How to Build a Bat-Girl: Post-crip Monstrosity in Gail Simone’s Batgirl"

Short break and chance to browse creators’ tables/posters (10:30 am)

Panel Two: Woman/Monster (10:45 am)

Chair: Michael Thompson

Chera Kee, “Monsters of Class and Monstrous Femininity: Gwen Dylan and the undead of iZombie

Pauline Reynolds and Sara Durazo-DeMoss, “Beauty and her b(r)easts: Monstrosity and college women in The Jaguar (1992)”

Joshua Plencner, “Queer Monstrosity, Colonial Fantasy: Fantomah at the Dawn of the Superhero”

Lunch (12:00 pm)

Panel Three: Monstrous Maternity (1:30 pm)

Chair: Jacqueline Vickery

Jeannie Ludlow, “Inappropriate/d Generations: Artifactual Pregnancy and Diffracted Choice in Comic Narratives”

Marcela Murillo, “The Monstrous Maternal Portrayal of the Bolivian Chola in Contemporary Comics”

Tomoko Kuribayashi, “Monstrous Women in Moto Hagio’s Graphic Fiction: An Analysis of the Maternal/Monstrous in Marginal

Panel Four: Daddy’s Lil Monster (2:45 pm)

Chair: Joshua Plencner

Elizabeth Coody, “Rewriting to Control: How the Origins of Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman and Mary Magdalene Matter to Women’s Perceived Power”

Kodi Maier, “Joker’s Little Monster: the Contentions and Complexities of Harley Quinn”

Short break and chance to browse creators’ tables/posters (3:45 pm)

Panel Five: Monstrosity, Transformation, and Power (4:00 pm)

Chair: Raina Joines

Rick Stevens, “Exploring the Monstrous Feminist Frame: Marvel’s She-Hulk as Male-centric Feminist Discourse”

An Sasala, “Non-Compliant: Foucauldian Incarceration of the Monstrous Woman in Bitch Planet

Savannah Molina, Title TBC

Keynote Speech by Dr. Carol Tilley: "A Regressive Formula of Perversity: Fredric Wertham and the Monstrous Women of Comics." **Open to the public** (5:30 pm)

Head to Conference Dinner. **Conference presenters only** (6:30 pm)


Saturday, May 27th Environmental Sciences Building, Room 110, UNT Campus:

Coffee & pastries (9:30 am)

Panel Six: Monsters of Childhood/Monstrous Childhood (9:45 am)

Chair: Elizabeth Coody

Daniel Yezbick, “SeDUCKtress!: Magica De Spell, Scrooge McDuck, and the Antropo-patriarchal Sorcery of Carl Barks’ Midcentury Disney Comics”

Novia Shih-Shan Chen and Sho Ogawa, “On the Edge of 1990s Japan: Kyoko Okazaki and the Horror of Adolescence”

Samantha Langsdale, “Between Lunella Lafayette and Quvenzhané Wallis: Examining the Progress and Challenges in Monstrous Black Girl Narratives”

Panel Seven: Monstrosity, Women & Transgression (11:00 am)

Chair: Agatha Beins

Justin Cook, “’The hope of every creeping thing’: The Posthuman Female Monster, Ectopic Entomology, and Maternal Necro-Rhetorics in Aftershock’s Insexts Comic”

Keri Crist Wagner, “Horrible Victorians: Interrogating Power, Sex, and Gender within InSexts

Michael Thompson, “No Ordinary Dick: Transgression and Femininity in Jessica Jones

Lunch (12:15 pm)

Panel Eight: Historical Monsters (1:30 pm)

Chair: Samantha Langsdale

Rikke Cortsen, “‘You hit him’–Caroline Mathilde and Støvlet-Cathrine as Monstrous Women”

Justin Wigard, “Monochromatic Teeth, Tongues, and Tentacles: Grendel’s Mother as a Monster Perpetuating Female Gender Roles in Stephen L. Stern’s Beowulf: the Graphic Novel

Jing Zhang, “Chinese Snake Woman Resurfaces in Comics–A Case Study of ‘Calabash Brothers’”

Coffee break and chance to browse creators’ tables/posters (2:45 pm)

Panel Nine: Identity, Femininity & Monstrosity (3:00 pm)

Chair: Agatha Beins

Ayanni Hanna, “‘There is More to Me than Just Hunger’: Female Monsters and Liminal Spaces in Monstress and Pretty Deadly

Christina Knopf, “UFO (Unusual Female Others) Sightings in Saucer Country: Metaphors of Identity and Politics”

Loren Roberson, “Doucet’s Secret Desire and the Subconscious Monstrosity of Femininity”


Conference End (4:15 pm)

     Poster Presentations:

      Heather Williams, “Poison Ivy: Woman as Beauty, Earth, and Poison”