September 24, 2025
PhD Candidate Cole J. Graham Participates in Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) Roundtable
Last Thursday, September 18th, PhD Candidate Cole J. Graham participated in a roundtable made up of comics scholars during Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) is an annual four-day festival that has taken place throughout Columbus since 2015, with its center at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. The festival has created a space for those passionate about cartoon and comics art to connect, experience new artworks together, and share research.
During the roundtable, Cole discussed his research on monstrosity as it presents itself in popular culture (particularly manga), which he has been conducting since 2022. Cole's research is structured around the claim that monstrosity is a concept capacious enough to make room for all types of embodied difference: ability/disability difference, racial difference, gender difference, and beyond. He seeks to explore how one of the spaces in which such differences can erupt is on the page of the manga.
The roundtable also included PhD candidate in English Patrick McCabe and PhD Candidate in STEM Education Ruth Oliwe. It was moderated by the brilliant Sydney Heifler, who is a PhD Candidate in History here at OSU.