We always LOVE putting up new displays in the UW Tacoma Library buildings, and are especially excited by the new display in the Snoqualmie Building! Entitled Graphic Novels: Identities, Translation, & Intersectionality, this display kicks off our Allen Opportunity Grant purchasing of graphic novels for the UW Tacoma Library.

In particular, our collection development efforts for this seed collection will promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of the people living in the Puget Sound and that reflect campus demographics in terms of diversity of ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, immigration status, disability, religion, and age.  In so doing, this collection would support the #OwnVoices trend in collection development.

The display itself broadly examines the idea of identities, translation, and intersectionality using graphic novels as a frame of reference.  Thus, there has been a shift in the portrayal of identities in graphic novels and comics, with movement away from racial stereotypes and biases towards identities that are intersectional, diverse, and equitable.

And the importance of equitable and representative portrayals?

“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.” ― Rudine Sims Bishop

Come visit us in SNO and check out some of the books!  Do you  have a good graphic novel to recommend? Let us know!

 

References:

Bishop, R. S.  (1990).  “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors”.  Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom 6(3).