Comics and Medicine 2013 / Comics & Medicine 2013: Ethics Under Cover

Ethics Under Cover: Comics, Medicine and Society, hosted by BSMS in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH), will examine issues in medical and healthcare ethics through the use of graphic art and comics.

Themes will range from the ethical dilemmas of presenting challenging medical issues such as abortion, epilepsy and mental health in a graphic novel or comic book, to the ethics of presenting other people's medical experiences through this genre.

The three-day conference, supported by leading medical foundation, the Wellcome Trust, will bring together some renowned speakers in the field:

• Nicola Streeten, author of Billy, Me and You, a graphic memoir about the bereavement following the death of her two-year-old son, who is now exploring the issue of abortion in her new work.
• David B, a leading French graphic novelist famous for his six-volume autobiographical epic L'Ascension du Haut Mal, who will talk about his work, considered one of the masterpieces of French comics.
• Paul Gravett, a leading world authority in the comic genre, who will reflect on medicine in comics – past, present and future.

They will be joined by a number of local medical researchers and practitioners including, Professor Bobbie Farsides (Clinical and Biomedical Ethics, BSMS), Dr Sue Eckstein (Clinical and Biomedical Ethics, BSMS), Dr Sarah Garfinkel (Neuroscience, Emotion and Psychiatry, BSMS), Professor Gill Bendelow (Medical Sociology, University of Sussex), Lisa Rodrigues, Chief Executive of Sussex Partnership, NHS Trust, and Dr Muna Al-Jawad, Geriatric Consultant, BSUH.

BSMS students will also contribute to sessions.

Professor Bobbie Farsides said: "BSMS has a strong tradition of engaging with the arts as they relate to medicine. This is why we jumped at the chance of working with the internationally renowned Graphic Medicine movement. We were delighted when the Wellcome Trust agreed to fund the collaboration and thanks to their support Ethics Under Cover promises to be even bigger than the previous conferences in London, Chicago and Toronto."

The organisers are expecting over 130 participants, with a number coming from North and South America.

Organiser Dr Muna Al-Jawad, a Geriatric Consultant at BSUH, said: "Brighton has a reputation as an open-minded city, with an eclectic mix of art, academia and real-life grit. This makes it the perfect match for the emerging field of comics and medicine. The team at Brighton were also able to provide expertise in comics, clinical medicine, medical humanities and bioethics. This has been incredibly valuable in appealing to the diverse groups represented by the conference participants."