The Graphic Novel Dissertation

An experiment in radical accessibility

Traditional research approaches have a reputation in communities of color for extracting research from those communities in ways that feel exploitative and ultimately do not serve anyone beyond the ivory tower.

This dissertation is an effort to challenge that dynamic.

My dissertation is an arts-based research project with New Orleans youth, focused on storytelling racialized experiences in the New Orleans school system. The finished work will be a graphic novel that traces New Orleans schools from the past into the present and presents a path for the future anchored in the stories the youth share.

This project engages 7 teenagers who attend New Orleans public schools in a participatory action research project. This spring, youth meet for 12 Saturday sessions to engage in critical dialogues and consciousness-raising around the history of New Orleans schools. Youth also discuss the purpose and utility of policy narratives as a method of social change. From there, each participant will craft a 5 page comic script describing a personal experience in New Orleans public schools that highlights an education policy problem. Professional artists will then illustrate these stories.