Illustration Studies: New Approaches, New Directions

Illustration Studies has, in recent years, emerged as a new and vibrant discipline with its own journals, book series, conferences, websites, and research networks. The renewed interest and dynamic research in this field of study follows a period of long neglect by scholars, resulting from the uncertain cross-medial status of illustration and its position between disciplines. Indeed, the frontiers of this discipline remain nebulous and its terminology, key issues, and critical methods are in need of re-evaluation. By its very nature, illustration opens up a number of fundamental questions regarding the relation between text and image, the illustrated book and visual culture, artistry and reproduction.
 
This three-day international and interdisciplinary conference will address these questions in a range of periods (from the early modern to the contemporary), across cultures (amongst others, England, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and Sweden), embracing practical, theoretical, and historical approaches. The conference’s keynote speakers are Luisa Calè (Birkbeck) on ‘“Single Leaf Tales”: William Blake Unbound, Disbound, Archived’ and Julia Thomas (Cardiff) on ‘Big Illustration Studies’. The conference will also include a workshop lead by Jaleen Grove (‘The Illustration Game Revisited’) and an artist’s talk by Chris Wormell (‘New Directions for Old Approaches: Wood Engraving in a Digital Age’).
 
Co-organisers: Ann Lewis (Birkbeck, University of London) and Christina Ionescu (Mount Allison University, Canada), in collaboration with the Illust4tio network.
 
FINAL PROGRAMME (pdf)
 
Call for Papers (pdf)
 
REGISTRATION
Please register and pay the appropriate fee by clicking on Book Now at the top of the page. Registration closes Sunday 2 April 2023.

£90  3-day rate for speakers and participants/delegates
£50  reduced 3-day rate for research students/retired/unwaged colleagues