Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

Michigan State University

New Row

Contact expert @[Full Name](fullname), @[Job Title](job_title) at @[Organization](organization) for media, speaking, professional opportunities and more.

@[Full Name](fullname) at @[Organization](organization) | Contact Form

Expert Inquiry

Open Sans

Florida Historical Society Hampton Dunn New Media Award

Florida Historical Society Hampton Dunn Internet Award

Julian Pleasant Fellow, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP), University of Florida

Comics as Data North America (CaDNA) : Faculty Lead

The Graphic Possibilities OER

Critical Fanscape

National Monument Audit

Days of Future Past: Why Race Matters in Metadata

Allan W. Austin and Patrick L. Hamilton. All New, All Different? A History of Race and the American Superhero

Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitical Domains

The Ages of the Black Panther: Essays on the King of Wakanda in Comic Books

More Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods

Marvel Comics into Film: Essays on Adaptations Since the 1940s

Julian C. Chambliss is a Professor of English and the Val Berryman Curator of History at the MSU Museum at Michigan State University. In addition, he is the faculty lead for the Department of English Graphic Possibilities Research Workshop and a core participant in the MSU College of Arts & Letters’ Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research (CEDAR). His research interests focus on race, culture, and power in real and imagined spaces. His recent writing has appeared in Scholarly Editing, Genealogy,  KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, and The Conversation US.

He is a co-editor and contributor for Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience, a book examining the relationship between superheroes and the American Experience (2013). His book on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural, and Geopolitical Domain, was published in 2018.  His recent essays on comics have appeared in More Critical Approaches to Comics (2019) and The Ages of Black Panther (2020). His exhibition for the MSU Museum, Beyond the Black Panther: Vision of Afrofuturism in American Comics, explores Afrofuturist theme comics produced in the United States. His comics and digital humanities projects include The Graphic Possibilities OER, an open educational resource focused on comics, and Critical Fanscape, a student-centered critical-making project focused on communities connected to comics in the United States. He also serves as faculty lead for Comics as Data North America (CaDNA), an ongoing collaborative project at Michigan State University that uses library catalog data to explore North American comic culture. His most recent open-access book, Making Sense of Digital Humanities: Transformations and Interventions in Technocultures, offers a thematic roadmap to teaching digital humanities. His comic history exhibitions include Take Off! Comic Artists from the Great White North (2019),  Comics and the City (2020), and Justice for All: Social Justice in Comics (2022).

An interdisciplinary scholar, he continually seeks ways to bridge teaching, scholarship, and service to understand space, place, and identity better. His work embraces Black digital humanities and Critical Afrofuturist frameworks.

Afrofuturism‎

Black Digital Humanities

Comics and Culture

Comic Book Adaptations

Space, Place, and Identity

Michigan State University Profile

Google Scholar Citations

Wikipedia Page

Personal Website

Afrofuturism and Black culture explored in new documentary by MSU professors

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ continues the series’ quest to recover and celebrate lost cultures

Ask the Expert: MSU Professor Julian Chambliss on “What is Afrofuturism?”

Professor of English

Julian Chambliss is an English professor at Michigan State University who studies comic books.

“I’m particularly interested in race, space and power,” says Chambliss. “Examining comics through a scholarly lens can tell us about who we are, and a lot of my research provides context to why comics matter.”

Chambliss was drawn to Michigan State for a simple reason: it’s home to the largest publicly available comic art collection in the world. This has provided Chambliss with opportunities to curate the narrative for the MSU Comics Forum and start serious conversations about diverse cultural experiences.  

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

Looking at comics through a scholarly lens

Perhaps most frequently associated with the great expanses of oceans and sky, Afrofuturist movements have also given rise to the speculative cities, reclaimed monuments, and transformed landscapes and communities that will be the focus on this panel.

This panel is part of the Terrestrial Space theme, as organized by the January 27-29, 2022 Claiming Space Symposium. For more information, visit https://airandspace.si.edu/learn/highlighted-topics/afrofuturism/claiming-space-symposium

The @smithsonian Afrofuturism Series is a collaboration between the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (@NMAAHC), and the   @SmithsonianAfricanAr.

Terrestrial Space: Reclaiming Landscapes

Serious Conversation about Comics

Most people are familiar with Marvel's Black Panther, and some are aware of its connections to Afrofuturism, a framework to understand how the black imagination manifests visions of freedom. This virtual exhibition explores how themes such as aesthetics, Black feminism, and community, common to Afrofuturism, shape contemporary Black comics. "Beyond the Black Panther" gives us a view of stories inspired by African folklore such as Is’nana the Were-Spider, science fiction adventures centered on a black female hero such as Matty’s Rocket, or vital social commentary about police violence such as I am Alfonso Jones. The MSU Museum encourages visitors to engage with this exciting topic and expand their understanding of the black speculative tradition in comics.

Beyond the Black Panther: Visions of Afrofuturism in American Comics

In this talk, curator Dr. Julian Chambliss will discuss the Afrofuturist symbolism connected to Black Panther in comics and film and discuss how the upcoming MSU Museum exhibition builds on the definition of Afrofuturism articulated in the 1990s.

Curator Brown Bag Talk: The Secret Comic Origins of Afrofuturism

Select Inquiry Type