AUK students Present Proposals for an Arab Comic Series

On Monday, June 2 in AUK's Auditorium from 4:00-6:00 pm, students enrolled in Dr. Rawda Awwad's Special Topics class and American Embassy Officers, Mr. John Berry, Councilor for Public Affairs, Joe Scovitch, Cultural Attache, and Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa Chairman/CEO of Teshkeel were discussing the subject of heroes and superheroes in mass media. During the final half hour, students briefly presented their own projects: 'Proposals for an Arab Comic Series'.

The students' projects spun out of a course that Dr. Awwad developed last fall, and offered as a course this Spring semester titled 'Comics: The Superhero in the Arab World' during which students engaged in a comparative analysis between Western depictions of the hero 'superhero in mainstream comics, and the more recent surge in what is currently considered as more authentically Arab representations. An integral part of this course was looking at theories of popular culture and mass media, and the history and development of western comics and Arab comics.

During the course of the semester, students focused on studying among other recently emerging Arab comics, the 99 (ninety-nine) which is 'Teshkeel's first original property and according to company description is "based on Islamic culture and history,' and attempts to fill the apparent void of culturally representative and appropriate role-models. As a final project, students were asked to develop a proposal for their own comic series, support it with an example of an eight page comic strip and provide a cultural analysis of their own work.

At the beginning of the event, Dr. Rawda Awwad asked students and guests to respond to three questions which asked that they identify the following: their comic hero/superhero when they were young; what aspect(s) of the hero they believed they could personally and culturally relate to; and the value system(s) that these heroes extended. The various responses became the basis of discussion between students and guests that addressed issues related to the various depictions of the hero and superhero, notions of identity, representation, religion, political interests and ideological biases, and mass perception specifically related to Arab comics.