Marilyn K. Cory Lecture Series
What: “‘Flame On!’ Nuclear Families, Unstable Molecules, and the Queer History of 'The Fantastic Four'”
When: 7:30 tonight
Where: Burkhardt Building Room 109
Cost: Free
Ramzi Fawaz will speak at 7:30 tonight as part of the Marilyn K. Cory Lecture Series about "The Fantastic Four" and what this comic series has to say about postwar American society.
Growing up, Fawaz remembers facing social difficulties in middle school and found help when he first discovered the 35th anniversary edition of the "X-Men."
“I felt like I could relate to them because they were social outcasts who banded together,” he said.
After this initial introduction, Fawaz said he has held a passion for comic books and their ability to “tell stories about people who felt like me.”
When he attended college at the University of California at Berkley and began to study pop culture, he began to question why it was that he was so drawn to this visual culture.
“Comic books aren’t only narrated stories,” he said. “They tell really complex tales of different kinds of social outcasts through this kaleidoscope of experiences, just like how not everyone has the same kind of experience in life, and I loved that comic books could capture this complexity.”
He received his bachelor's in English and American Studies before going on to receive his master's and doctorate in American Studies at George Washington University and spending an additional year at the university, working on post-doctoral studies.
For his scholarship, Fawaz said he focused his research on how popular literature and culture are “taken up and used by people to enact radical politics” and how “popular media becomes a realm of political activism.”
Fawaz, currently an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, specializes in the fields of American cultural studies, queer theory and LGBTQ culture and literature.
He has published several articles and essays in American Literature, Callaloo and
Fawaz said this book is a reflection of his love for teaching.
“I love my teaching, and it is my teaching that fuels my research,” he said. “I love the conversations I have with my undergrads about their relationship to popular culture.”
Jeremy Carnes, a master's student in literature at Ball State, said Fawaz’s talk will contribute a perspective on the world of comic books different from that of the other speakers this year.
“Ramzi will be adding a really academic and professional perspective as he talks about how they can and should be brought into academics,” he said.
During this lecture, Fawaz will delve into the world of "The Fantastic Four," exploring their political and social significance within the 1960s, along with “issues of family, the emergence of the modern feminist movement and the modern gay rights movement,” said Debora Mix, an associate professor of English who has coordinated the talk series this year.
One of the reasons why Fawaz was selected for the final talk in this speaker series is because of his connection to a member of the staff here at Ball State. Amit Baishya, assistant professor of English, and Fawaz had a class together at Cornell University in 2008, and they have stayed in touch since then.
Baishya expressed that one of the reasons why Fawaz was chosen for this series is because of his scholarly interest in comic books.
“Ramzi is a very interesting scholar,” Baishya said. “He looks at a very different branch of comic books with a very different approach from a feminist and queer studies perspective in terms of social issues and social history, especially in postwar United States.”
Fawaz expressed that he is excited to give this talk at Ball State, saying that it is an “incredible way to dialogue about comic books,” and that it “reminds you why you go into the academic world.”
Carnes said he hopes the audience will walk away from this talk with a greater understanding about the potential of comic book scholarship.
“Comic books are worth looking at in academia, and people who look at comic books aren’t just trying to relive their childhoods — although that might be part of it,” he said. “Academics are doing some really cool things in English literature and the university as a whole.”
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