The CAC's poster session gives attendees the opportunity to interact directly with presenters. Attendees can speak one-on-one with scholars about their projects. Valentino Zullo (Ursuline College), Katharine Trostel (Ursuline College), Emiliano Aguilar (University of Notre Dame), and Rafael Abrahams (Brandeis University) document how Rust Belt comics—Paper Girls, Reclaiming the Sacrifice Zone, and American Splendor—reactivate geographies that have been rendered invisible. Darnel Degand (University of California, Davis), Justin Martin (Whitworth University), and Kareem Edouard (Drexel University) look back to the 1966 publication of Bertram Fitzgerald's Golden Legacy series on Black historical figures, the debut of the Black Panther, and the Afrofuture. John A. Walsh (Indiana University) examines how comics recycle themselves through remix and reuse to negotiate continuity, format, and changing cultural constraints. Mike Nguyen presents the findings of his quantitative study showing that greater exposure to superhero comics is associated with less favorable DEI attitudes and may reinforce dominant ideologies. Gary Catig (AIPT) shows how graphic novels provide key insight into everyday life in the enigmatic country of North Korea. Cathryn Uber shows how incorporating graphic novels in ELA classes builds student reading confidence and boosts reading scores. Anthony Betrus (State University of New York at Potsdam) and Maggie Schneider (Ithaca College) study how tabletop RPGs were depicted in comics to visualize how those games entered comic book culture as play, a conduit for magic, and a portal to fantasy. Akane Wong (Ithaca College) and Edward Schneider (Ithaca College) present a quantitative comparison of mainstream superhero immigrant narratives with autobiographical accounts. Danielle Kohfeldt (California State University, Long Beach), Maricela Correa-Chavez (California State University, Long Beach), Adriana Griot (California State University, Long Beach), Natalie Vega (California State University, Long Beach), and Tina Rin (California State University, Long Beach) examine the ways webcomics centered on disability leverage "crip humor" to critique harmful social structures. Gary Tydryszewski (Liberty University) shows how integrating superhero comic books into a gifted and talented ELA classroom encourages students to study these texts as both literature and art. Joel Thurman (University of Colorado Boulder) uses the orphan gaze as an interpretive framework for understanding how superhero orphans are granted agency and power while real-world orphans are constrained by systems of power. Barbara Glaeser (California State University, Fullerton), Andrew Sanchez (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), Jill Patterson (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), and Deanna Kidd (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) show how graphic novels about the challenges faced by legendary creators from the '40s to '70s reflect the audacity to push forward with their talent despite personal and societal roadblocks.
