Comics Sans Frontières • March 20-23, 2025
Comics Sans Frontières:
Border Defiance in Graphic Narratives
Rice University, Houston, Texas
From panels and gutters to speech balloons and narrative boxes, comics has been famously marked by graphic borders. Yet, with its inherent co-mixing of words and images, comics has been equally about the defiance of borders, offering a literary stage for artists and narratives that challenge graphic, national and cultural frontiers. Echoing a similar act of academic border-defiance, we will bring together esteemed artists and scholars from around the globe who produce and study such texts.
The keynote event will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning comic artist Art Spiegelman, the author of the groundbreaking graphic memoirs Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers. This opening event will be followed by three days of presentations, exhibitions, and comics-making workshops in locations across the Rice campus, all FREE and open to the public. A volume of papers and art will be collected in the graphic anthology š! from kuš! komikss, available at the conference.
Join us for an international, interdisciplinary and cross-campus dialog on a form whose relevance to 21st-century communication and literacy is constantly growing.
Want to promote our conference at your school or community center? Download a letter-sized poster here.
Please note: All events are FREE and OPEN to the public on a first come, first served basis. Need help getting here? Plan your visit and parking here, with Google Map links to event locations and parking options.
THURSDAY, MARCH 20
Moody Center for the Arts
[map] [parking]
5:00PM to 6:45PM
Opening Reception for Moody Project Wall: Christopher Sperandio, Comics Without Borders
Organized by Christopher Sperandio with the students of ARTS387: Exhibition Design
Moody Center for the Arts, Lois Chiles Studio Theater
7:00PM
Opening Remarks:
Christopher Sperandio
7:10PM
Introduction of Š! #55, Comics Sans Frontières:
Pedro Moura
7:20PM
Keynote Event:
Introductions by Dr. Matthias Henze (RELI)
Art Spiegelman in conversation with Ofray Amihay (JWST)
8:30PM
Closing event
FRIDAY, MARCH 21
301 Sewall Hall (Rice Cinema)
[map] [parking]
9:00AM to 10:00AM
Coffee clutch
10:00AM to 12:00PM
PANEL 1: When Comics meet Engineering
Moderated by K.Jane Grande-Allen (BIOE); featuring Mia Oberländer (Germany), Vera Bekema (Germany), Līga Spunde (Latvia)
12:00PM to 1:00PM
Lunch break (patronize food trucks or bring a bag a lunch)
1:00PM to 2:50PM
PANEL 2: Artists & Publishers Roundtable
Moderated by Christopher Sperandio; featuring David Schilter (Kus Komikss, Riga, Latvia), Brian Baynes (Bubbles Fanzine, Richmond, VA), Charles Kochman (Abrams ComicArts), and a special report by Fondren Fellow Sofia Adams-Giron (Rice ’29)
3:00PM to 4:50PM
PANEL 3: Comics and Gender
Moderated by Tesla Cariani (Boston University); featuring Julie Fette (FREN), Amelyn Ng (Columbia University), Caitlin McGurk (Ohio State University)
5:00 PM to 5:50PM
Mocktails on the Quad
6:00PM to 8:00PM
Robert Pruitt in discussion with Oliva K. Young (HART)
SATURDAY, MARCH 22
Kyle Morrow Room, Fondren Library
[map] [parking]
10:00AM to 11:00AM
Coffee and Exhibition Reception for an exhibition, Highlights from the CATS Workshop Collection. Organized by Fondren Fellow Sofia Adams-Giron (Rice ’29)
11:00AM to 1:50PM
PANEL 4: Comics and Language
Moderated by Ofra Amihay; featuring Margarita M. Castromán Soto (ENGL), Naoko Ozaki (CLIC), Martalisa Tsai (Rice ’25 – Political Science & German Studies)
2:00PM – 3:00PM
Lunch break (patronize food trucks or bring bag a lunch)
3:15PM to 5:45PM
PANEL 5: Comics at Rice
Moderated by David Messmer (FWIS); featuring Jeffrey Kripal (RELI), Christopher Sperandio (ART & CATS), Amanda Focke & K. Sarah Ostrach (FONDREN)
SUNDAY, MARCH 23
201 Sewall Hall (print shop)
[map] [parking]
1:00PM to 4:00PM
Risograph and Letterpress Workshop
201 Sewall Hall – the printshop off of the courtyard. Workshop participants will make collage works to be printed as Risograph. Augusto Mora (Mexico City) will print one or two page posters utilizing Risograph and Letterpress in demonstration.
MONDAY, MARCH 24
Moody Center for the Arts
[map] [parking]
Post-conference events for Rice Students–
The Scientia Workshops
9:30AM to 11AM
Mia Oberländer, Room 205
12:00PM
Gallery talk by Liga Spunde at the Project Wall
1:00PM to 2:30PM
Vera Bekema, Room 205
SPEAKERS and PANELISTS
Featuring:
Ofra Amihay (Jewish Studies) • Tesla Cariani (Boston University) • Margarita, M. Castromán Soto (ENGL) Amanda Focke (Head of Special Collections, Woodson Research Center) • K. Jane Grande-Allen (BIOE) • Matthias Henze (Jewish Studies) • David Messmer (FWIS) • Julie Fette (MCLC) • Jeffrey Kripal (RELI) • Pedro Moura (LEBD) • Naoko Ozaki (CLIC)• K. Sarah Ostrach (Fondren) • Christopher Sperandio (ARTS) • Sofia Adams-Giron (Rice ’29) • Martalisa Tsai (Rice ’25)
Artists:
Art Spiegelman (US) • Robert Pruitt (US) • Amelyn Ng (US) • Mia Oberländer (DE) • Vera Bekema (DE) • Liga Spunde (LV)
Publishers:
David Schilter, kuš! • Brian Baynes, Bubbles Fanzine • Charles Kochman, Abrams ComicArts
SPONSORS
Comics Sans Frontières, March 20-24, 2025, is supported in part by the following Rice University entities: Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication • Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality • Creative Ventures • Fondren Fellows program • Humanities Research Center • Program in Jewish Studies • Moody Center for the Arts • Department of Religion • Rice Architecture • Scientia Institute • Woodson Research Center
Driving + Parking
NOTE: Rice University has NO free parking. All public parking is accessible via a credit card only, and in some instances parking is also available as tap-to-pay. Navigating the roadways at the University can be a little confusing. If you are unfamiliar with campus, please allow yourself some extra time to park and walk to event venues. Feel free to use the links below or use these campus maps.
Parking for THURSDAY:
The Moody Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Rice University and is best reached by using Campus Entrance 8 at the intersection of University Boulevard and Stockton Street. As you enter campus, at the first intersection, the building is on the right. There is a dedicated parking lot, “Moody Lot,” adjacent to the building. Payment for the Moody Lot is by credit card only. Please note: The address is the general address of Rice University. To find us on campus, enter “Moody Center for the Arts” on Google or Apple maps.
Parking for FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY
For Friday’s events at Sewall Hall, Saturday’s events at Fondren Library and Sunday’s workshops at Sewall Hall, the Founder’s Court Lot is the closest public parking. There is additional public parking available at the Cambridge Office Building Parking Garage located here.
METRO bus + rail
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, (METRO) provides bus and rail service from destinations around Houston. There is a METRORail stop across the street from the main entrance of the Rice campus is the Hermann Park/Rice University station.
Still have questions? Email Associate Professor Christopher Sperandio at “Sperandio at Rice.edu”