CBR Lab Invites Faculty and Students Interested in Interdisciplinary Comics-Based Research to Participate

UMass Amherst faculty and students interested in interdisciplinary comics-based research (CBR) are invited to participate in the CBR Lab, directed by Sally Pirie, professor in the College of Education. Pirie, an anthropologist of childhood and qualitative methodologist and coordinator of the Children, Families and Schools Program, was previously a newspaper cartoonist and illustrator and is one of the creators of comics-based research, having contributed to the definition of the field and published comics-based work in formerly conventional-text-only journals.

The CBR Lab uses comics-based and other creative methodologies to solve problems, generate solutions, conduct innovative inquiry and imagine wider creative dissemination and research outputs in the humanities and social and natural sciences.

The CBR Lab will hold biweekly meetings beginning spring 2024 to train people interested in CBR methods and supporting student projects through independent study, as well as provide lessons in drawing.

Five College faculty members are welcome to attend group meetings to support their own work or our group projects, and students can enroll in EDUC 696A (Independent Study) with Pirie to participate in CBR Lab on a 1-3 credit basis. Low credit options include attending the biweekly meetings, with more in-depth project work with more credits.