Graphic Ethnography on the Rise

We are witnessing a new wave of ethnographic, multimodal creativity inspired by comics, graphic novels, and creative visual arts. The growth of this "graphic-ethnographic practice" has been unprecedented and fast, encouraging some to speak of a "graphic-ethnographic turn." Although we resist the temptation to circumscribe this expanding creativity in narrow definitional parameters, we feel compelled to think and reflect about its representational affordances: graphic experimentation in ethnography is enhancing reflexivity, collaboration, and public dissemination. The articles in this collection demonstrate some of the thought-provoking perspectives and representational styles that are currently available. We invite you to browse, compare, and multiply (in your work) the tools and experimental points of view we gained from our practice.

Posts in This Series

Introduction: Graphic Ethnography on the Rise

Introduction: Graphic Ethnography on the Rise

Graphic ethnography has grown exponentially in the last decade. We have seen an unprecedented number of graphic-ethnographic experiments, taking place in divers... More

Illustrating Anthropology

Illustrating Anthropology

The full exhibition can be viewed online: https://illustratinganthropology.com/ The artistic works featured in this graphic virtual tour are listed here in orde... More

Graphic Ethnography: The Trouble with Typologies

Graphic Ethnography: The Trouble with Typologies

[1] Williams encouraged us to avoid singular and closed academic narratives, a point he made before the corresponding anthropological critique of the 1980s; see... More

Adventures in Diagrammatic Reasoning—A Few Notes

Adventures in Diagrammatic Reasoning—A Few Notes

The evidence of a (re)turn to images in the academy is everywhere. One can pull one's hand through the air of current reference and quickly hold numerous texts ... More

Ways of Seeing Light in Dark Times with Graphic Ethnography: A Reflection

Ways of Seeing Light in Dark Times with Graphic Ethnography: A Reflection

Ways of Seeing Light in Dark Times with Graphic Ethnography: A Reflection By Alisse Waterston Illustrations by Charlotte Corden Truly, I live in dark times…he w... More

Companion Images

Companion Images

Articles in anthropology tend to derive their authority by reiterating a standard form. The citation of certain prominent—and often, but not always, brilliant—s... More

Images of Language in Graphic Anthropology

Images of Language in Graphic Anthropology

... More

Collaboration as Way Finding

Collaboration as Way Finding

... More

Lissa’s Multimodal Ethnography and Revolutionary Citation

Lissa’s Multimodal Ethnography and Revolutionary Citation

Lissa’s multimodal ethnoGRAPHIC fictional form enabled us to forge new and layered citational practices, merging the visual, verbal, and vernacular.[1] This was... More

Drawing Anthropology: A Couple of Things I Am Learning

Drawing Anthropology: A Couple of Things I Am Learning

In my early teens, I spent my entire allowance in the local comic book store. Then, at the age of sixteen, I discovered music and my interest in reading (and at... More

Moments of Lightheartedness: Graphic Ethnography Unsettling the Weightiness of Fieldwork

Moments of Lightheartedness: Graphic Ethnography Unsettling the Weightiness of Fieldwork

Content Warning: This essay discusses experiences of wartime sexual violence.... More

Graphic Ethnography: Tuning into the Melody

Graphic Ethnography: Tuning into the Melody

Illustrations by Ben Thomas“If you don’t have the data and you don’t have the story, you don’t have what it takes to move people” —Brené Brown I love hearing an... More

The Graphic in the Ethnographic: A Serious Methodological Turn or Just Some Visual Fun?

The Graphic in the Ethnographic: A Serious Methodological Turn or Just Some Visual Fun?

... More

What Does Drawing Do for the Anthropology of Childhood?

What Does Drawing Do for the Anthropology of Childhood?

... More

Otherwise Comics

Otherwise Comics

... More

The Making of a Page from the King of Bangkok

The Making of a Page from the King of Bangkok

Trying to reconstruct in words the process behind four years of the collaborative ethnographic, archival, graphic, and editorial work for The King of Bangkok wo... More