WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Oct. 14, 2014 — Wheeling native and West Liberty University alumnus, Dr. Matthew J. Smith, will be giving the keynote address at the Annual Conference of the West Virginia Association of College English Teachers this fall at 6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 24. The two-day conference, will take place at the Highlands Center campus.
“We are so pleased to have Matt join us. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of comic studies and his talk will focus on teaching comics as literature, an area in which he has extensive experience,” said Jeremy Larance, who is an assistant professor of English at WLU and interim chairman of the Department of Humanities.
Smith graduated from West Liberty in 1993 with a degree in English and received his doctorate in communication from Ohio University in 1998. Since that time, he has gone on to become one of the most recognized names in the academic study of comics.
“West Liberty has positioned itself at the forefront of undergraduate education in Comics Studies, and I could not be prouder to see my alma mater offering students the opportunity to engage this medium for human expression in a serious, rigorous program of study,” said Smith, who’s biographical information can also be found on comics forum.org.
Smith is a communication professor at Wittenberg University in Ohio, where he teaches courses in media studies, including media literacy, television criticism, media law and graphic storytelling. His research focuses on media criticism, with recent work in sequential art and reality television.
He co-wrote one of the most important textbooks on the subject, “The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture,” and he has either written or edited several other important books on the medium of comics and on culture of comics in general, including, “Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods,” “Icons of the American Comic Book” and “It Happens at Comic-Con: Ethnographic Essays on a Pop Culture Phenomenon.”
In 2012, Critical Approaches to Comics was nominated for an Eisner Award, which is essentially “The Academy Awards of Comics,” according to Larance.
“Matt takes a group of students to the San Diego Comi-Con each summer for class credit,” Larance added.
“We are pleased to host the annual conference and welcome all interested comic fans to join us for Matt’s presentation,” he said.
“Comics are a widely misunderstood medium, but efforts like those at WLU are raising awareness of the potential of the medium to communicate ideas about the human condition. I’m honored to be able to join in that conversation with my colleagues,” said Smith.
The West Virginia Association of College English Teachers members represent colleges and universities from across the State of West Virginia. The annual conference gives members a chance to present on topics of literary criticism and scholarship; composition and rhetoric; cultural studies; pedagogy; and creative works.
The WLU Highlands Center campus is located along Cabela Drive in the Highlands shopping complex, near the Marquee Cinema.
Anyone interested in attending Smith’s lecture is welcome to do so by calling Dr. Larance at 304-336-8195 or via email at jlarance@westliberty.edu. There is a fee for the dinner that will be served in conjunction with Smith’s talk ($15).