Migration and comics: aesthetic explorations, imaginary memories
At the start of the 21st century, migration has emerged as a central theme in comic books. These works are characterised in particular by a diversification of perspectives from one generation to the next, shifting back and forth between the migrant themselves and their descendants. Far from running out of steam, the theme is thus giving rise to new graphic narratives in societies that could be described as ‘post-migratory’, given that they are increasingly shaped by present or past experiences of migration. Twelve years after the major exhibition organised by the Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration in Paris on the links between migration and the ‘ninth art’, the body of work has grown and diversified. This one-day symposium aims to revisit the aesthetic explorations and commemorative imaginaries at work in this past and present body of work by situating them within a broader historical context, by situating them within a flow between lands of origin and lands of choice, and by bringing together multidisciplinary approaches and languages from the five continents.
Programme
Wednesday 21 October 2026
Opening
1.45 pm–2.00 pm: Welcoming participants
2.00 pm–2.10 pm : Opening address by Ms Rima Sleiman, Vice-Chair of the Scientific Council of INALCO
2.10 pm–2.30 pm : Introduction to the conference programme, by Yvan Gastaut and Stéphane Sawas
Session 1: Graphic narratives and current migration issues
Chair: Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky (INALCO)
14:30–14:50 : Testimonies, cartographies and investigations. Narrating the migration crisis through comic-strip reporting, by Sara Izzo (University of Salzburg, Austria)
14:50–15:10 : Aspects of exile, challenges of reception: comics and migration in the contemporary world, by María de los Ángeles Hernández Gómez (University of Granada, Spain)
3.10 pm–3.30 pm : Graphic metaphors of exile: a visual rhetoric of Latin American migration, by Flavio Paredes (Paul Valéry University of Montpellier)
15:30–16:00 : Discussion
Thursday 22 October 2026
Session 2: Migration yesterday, migration today
Chair: Marie Poinsot (Museum of the History of Immigration)
10.30–10.50: What if Bécassine were also about migration! A look back at Bécassine en apprentissage, by Anne-Marie Granet (Université Grenoble Alpes)
10.50–11.10 : Immigration and the Golden Age of Comics (1934–1945), by Laurence Grove (University of Glasgow, Scotland)
11.10–11.30 : Who speaks? Who tells the story? The question of perspective in immigration narratives in comics, by Eric Villagordo (Paul Valéry University of Montpellier)
11.30 am–12 noon : Discussion
12.00–14.00 : Lunch break
Session 3 : Diasporas and memory
Chair : Margarita Alfaro Amieiro (Autonomous University of Madrid)
2.00 pm–2.20 pm : From the scorching Caribbean to the frigid North : the Migrasyon of the Haitian diaspora in Quebec since the 1970s, by Jean-François Boutin (University of Quebec at Rimouski, Canada)
14.20–14.40 : Trauma, exile and return : The Armenian Ghost or how to exorcise the unspeakable, by Vassiliki Lalagianni (University of the Peloponnese, Greece)
14:40–15:00 : Greek Diasporic Identities in 21st-century graphic novels, by Stéphane Sawas (INALCO)
3.00 pm–3.30 pm : Discussion
3.30 pm–4.00 pm : Conclusions of the conference, by Yvan Gastaut (Université Côte d’Azur)
Participants
Margarita Alfaro Amieiro (Professor, Autonomous University of Madrid), Jean-François Boutin (Professor, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada), Yvan Gastaut (Senior Lecturer, Université Côte d’Azur), Anne-Marie Granet (Professor Emeritus, Université Grenoble Alpes), Laurence Grove (Professor, University of Glasgow, Scotland), María de los Ángeles Hernández Gómez (Senior Lecturer, University of Granada, Spain), Sara Izzo (Professor, University of Salzburg, Austria), Vassiliki Lalagianni (Professor, University of the Peloponnese, Greece), Flavio Paredes (PhD, Paul Valéry University of Montpellier), Marie Poinsot (Head of the Publications Department, Museum of the History of Immigration), Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky (Professor, INALCO), Stéphane Sawas (Professor, INALCO), Rima Sleiman (Professor, INALCO), Eric Villagordo (Professor, University of Montpellier Paul Valéry)
Scientific Committee
Leonor Martins Coelho (Professor, University of Madeira, Portugal), Laurence Grove (Professor, University of Glasgow, Scotland), Eric Villagordo (Professor, University of Montpellier Paul Valéry)
Organisation
Yvan Gastaut (Senior Lecturer, Université Côte d’Azur) and Stéphane Sawas (Professor, INALCO)