The Ethnography Lab team invites you to our third speaker event of the year as part of our Ethnography Lab 2018/2019 Speaker Series: ‘Ethnographic Experiments’ 

“WITCHBODY: Interrogating The Graphic Turn” with Sabrina Scott
Date: Tuesday, February 5th, 2019 (please note the change of day)
Location: The Ethnography Lab (Anthropology Building, 19 Russell St., Room 330)
Time: 6:00-8:00pm

This is the third event of the “Ethnographic Experiments” Speaker Series hosted by the Ethnography Lab. More information about the speaker series can be found at https://ethnographylab.ca

Sabrina Scott is a Ph.D. candidate in Science and Technology Studies at York University in Toronto. They have a Bachelor of Design in Illustration and a Master of Environmental Studies and Sustainability Education. Sabrina is a lifelong witch and spiritualist, and works as an illustrator, designer, and tarot reader. They teach studio illustration and critical theory at OCAD University in Toronto

In 2016, Sabrina published her graphic novel WITCHBODY. WITCHBODY is a 72-page poetic graphic novel about contemporary witchcraft written, illustrated, and produced by Sabrina. The work emerged from Sabrina’s multiple embodiments as a practicing witch of 20 years, artist, poet, and academic. Both a magical and academic object, the work is a form of practice-based research. Thinking with work emerging from Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab, Sabrina positions the book as sensory (auto)ethnography: it is about how witchcraft can teach horizontal ontology and a noticing of nonhuman agency through the sensations involved in its practice.

Sabrina will be discussing her graphic novel and methodology, as well as critically interrogating the current ‘graphic turn’ in academia. Though graphic novels and artistic products are powerfully pedagogic in new ways and add a great deal to academic conversations, academics seeking to explore the medium are often ill-prepared to engage with it. Drawing from my perspectives as both an academic and professional illustrator and graphic novelist, I discuss issues of ethics, labour, visibility, medium, and production often sidestepped by those seeking to produce academic comics.

You can learn more about Sabrina Scott and WITCHBODY: HTTPS://WITCHBODY.COM

The events in this series are free and open to the general public. Light refreshments will be served. 

Accessibility: The anthropology building is wheelchair accessible from the street via a ramp. An elevator is available for access to the 3rd floor. There are two gender-neutral washrooms, both of which are wheelchair accessible, on the third floor. We request that the event be scent-free. If you have any accessibility requests please contact hannah.quinn@mail.utoronto.ca.

Contact Jessika Tremblay at ethnography.lab@utoronto.ca for more information.

Poster by Johanna Pokorny