Graphic Novels, Art Making & Zines as Trans/Queer Archives

Graphic Novels, Art Making & Zines as Trans/Queer Archives

Monday, May 6, 2024

11:00am - 12:15pm (PST)
11:30pm - 12:15am (India)

Online and In-Person Event

UCSB, GIRV 2116

Artists and activists from India will talk about the role of zines, graphic novels, and art in archiving Trans/Queer experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us as we explore pages from the graphic novels, and engage with artists & activists in order to understand a queer account of the pandemic.

Sandeepta Das (she/her/hers)  

• Currently based in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. After she had completed her diplomas in Design Studies and Animation & Film Studies, she founded her own Performing-Visual Art collective, GUISE. her art collective represents the images of the distorted reality to make sense of belonging to the people from their extreme angles. She is also a Graphic & Visual Design Analyst in an International Information Technology Company.

Rima Ray 

• A creative individual who is in love with words and visuals; Rima is currently writing and co-illustrating Covid Chronicles, a Graphic Novel based on research done on the lives of the Transgender and Queer Community during the Covid 19 Lockdowns in India and Bangladesh. She is the Creative Director of Mad Earth Design Studio, founded in 2012, a creative studio that harnesses design as a catalyst for communication and development in the social sector and beyond. A Fashion Design graduate from NIFT, Rima started her career in the Mumbai Home Textile Industry. Her professional voyage spanning over two decades saw her collaborating with esteemed organizations like Zodiac, Portico New York, and Welspun Spaces. Beyond the canvas and fabric, Rima's creative expertise extends to design development projects with the government in the crafts sectors of West Bengal and Goa. As an artist she has done exhibitions in Goa, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. 

Jit Ray 

• Communication Designer with over 20 years in the field. Jit has been honed through stints at prominent media and corporate giants in Mumbai, including The Times of India, Daily News and Analysis, Hindustan Times, and Reliance ADAG. In 2012, he ventured into entrepreneurship, co-founding Mad Earth Design with Rima Ray. Presently, Jit brings his wealth of expertise to RPSG Media, where he serves as a Group Creative Director. In this capacity, he spearheads the establishment of the design department while offering invaluable creative inputs to various intellectual properties. 

Nandini Moitra (they/them) 

• Multidisciplinary artist based out of Kolkata, India. They consider themselves a visual storyteller, and they tell stories of the interiority of queerness, homes, imagined queer histories, and feminist food histories from their geographical context.  Their work imagines power and resistance. They exhibited their work at the India Habitat Center in Delhi, Ort Gallery in Birmingham, and Autograph ABP in London. They have also guest lectured at the University of Wolverhampton. Their work was also part of the 2019 graphic anthology “Bystander”. They have worked with various social justice organizations worldwide, including Frida Fund, UAF Africa, Oxfam, and Equality Fund as an illustrator and designer. They are currently part of the Fearless  Collective Ambassador program. They painted a hundred-foot mural depicting transmasculine folks in Kolkata. They have created murals in Chennai, Kolkata, Dubai and Hatton in Sri Lanka. Their work was also featured at the Women's Pavilion at UN COP 28. 

Debanuj DasGupta

• Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies at UCSB. Debanuj’s research and teaching focuses on racialized regulation of space, immigration detention, queer migrations and the global governance of migration, sexuality, and HIV. Debanuj serves on the political geography editorial board of the Geography Compass and is Board-Co Chair of the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies: CLAGS at the City University of New York. He is the recipient of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) funded Junior Scholar Award in Transregional Studies: Inter Asian Contexts & Connections; Global Challenges Research Fund Networking Award, The British Department for International Development, Ford Foundation funded New Voices Fellowship, American Association of Geographers and National Science Foundation funded T. J. Reynolds National Award in Disability Studies, and the International AIDS Society’s Emerging Activist Award. Her scholarly work has been published in journals such as Human Geography, Women’s Studies in Communication, Disability Studies Quarterly, Contemporary South Asia, SEXUALITIES, Gender, Place & Culture, Emotions, Space, and Society, and the Scholar and the Feminist (S&F online). She is the co-editor of Friendship As Social Justice Activism: Critical Solidarities in Global Perspective (University of Chicago Press), and Queering Digital India: Activisms, Identities and Subjectivities (University of Edinburgh Press).