In my doctoral thesis I analyse representations of migration in contemporary comics, main focus being on the intermedial elements included in them.

Comics is a unique medium that has a language of its own. In addition to combining words and images, the page of a comic is defined by the order and the simultaneousness of the images: the panels of a comic function both in time and in space. The spatio-temporal form of comics works well to represent migration which is both a geographical and a historical phenomenon.

Due to its combination of visual and verbal elements, comics has been regarded as a intermedial form in its own right, but I am interested in the intermediality of comics on a wider scale, that is, in the ways in which comics narration incorporates elements from different media and the meanings these elements carry with them to comics.

The central research objective of my dissertation is to show that through the use of intermedial elements in the comics the theme of migration is reinforced and, furthermore, possibilities of empathetic encounters are created between the comics and readers.

My doctoral thesis was part of a multidisciplinary project called "Comics and Migration. Belonging, Narration, Activism" (2018-2021) funded by Kone Foundation. Find out more about the project here: migrationcomics.fi