Into the Archieverse

With their innovative publishing strategies and brand discipline, Archie Comics is one of the most successful and longest-running brands in the comics industry. In its 80-plus year history, Archie has expanded its universe from the humble confines of Riverdale and its comic-romantic teen cast﹘Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and their friends﹘into an ever-growing multitude of characters, settings, genres, and media that has generated broad popular appeal for both American and international audiences. This virtual conference seeks to explore this multiverse from a variety of disciplinary, artistic, and theoretical perspectives by bringing together scholars, teachers, students, artists, librarians, creators and others with an interest in comics, sequential art, film, music, fashion, and popular culture.

Realizing Resistance Episode III: The Expading Universe

The final installment of the RR trilogy! Since the advent of the Disney era, the Star Wars universe has expanded rapidly, manifesting in new comics, games, and animated and live-action series. As with our previous events, this conference aims to bring together scholars from across disciplines to examine the nearly half century span of Star Wars media as cultural texts.

RRIII Pop Up Events

DH+BH: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Digital Humanities and Book History

DH+BH was the inaugural conference of the Digital Cultural Studies Cooperative (DCSC). This hybrid and distributed event is September 22-24, 2022, collaboratively hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Southern Methodist University, the University of California Los Angeles, the Ohio State University, and Texas A&M University.

Realizing Resistance Episode II: Uncharted Galaxies

An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Star Wars Universe

Realizing Resistance Episode II took place virtually May 4-7, 2021. The conference featured scholarly and creative interventions examining Star Wars media as cultural texts with an explicit focus on themes of resistance and justice. Sponsored by the UIUC University Library, and the University Libraries of the University of North Texas.

The Flyover Comics Symposium

Members of the comics studies communities at Michigan State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of North Texas joined with Digital Frontiers to fill the lacunae left in comics studies due to COVID-related cancellations. symposium. The Flyover Comics Symposium, a virtual conference for comics studies scholars, students, and professionals took place September 24 & 25, 2020. Sponsored by ComicsPlus.

Realizing Resistance

An Interdisciplinary Conference on Star Wars, Episodes VII, VIII & IX

Produced in partnership with the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Texas, Realizing Resistance took place May 2-4, 2019 in Denton, Texas.
Keynote Speaker: Jeffrey Richey (Berea College)