Research in French: Spotlight on scholarly comics

By Marianne St-Jacques

Intermediate Advisor, Communications and Marketing, Library

May 11, 2026

Spotlight on scholarly comics
With the 93rd Acfas conference happening, discover how Francophone researchers are using comics to share their work with the general public.

In 1975, Serge Tisseron caused a stir defending a thesis in the form of a graphic novel titled Contribution à l’utilisation de la bande dessinée comme instrument pédagogique : une tentative graphique sur l’histoire de la psychiatrie, which looked at the role of comics as a teaching tool in psychiatry. Not only did this thesis enable him to receive a doctorate in medicine, but his innovative approach earned him congratulations from Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault, no less! But most importantly, this way of sharing knowledge through plates, panels and speech bubbles has gained popularity.

Today, scholarly comics — comics based on academic research — are a rapidly expanding genre, as three articles published in University Affairs, in 2022, 2023 and 2025,1  have noted.

Additionally, as researcher Maël Rannou noted in Alternative francophone in 2022:

“Francophone scholarly comics have really been gaining momentum for 10 years. With the creation of collections, authors themselves are specializing in these means of dissemination. Producing more accessible scholarly data meets a clear social need, when science is being used by everyone in everyday discussion, by various actors, whether scholars themselves, journalists, politicians or citizens (through the internet, for example), and the information manipulated has increasingly powerful effects and resonance. Disseminating readable scholarly data, following the scientific method, appears to be a major issue and authors must be prepared.”2

One sign of this interest is that, in 2024, the Presses de l’Université de Montréal launched its Enquêtes scientifiques collection, dedicated to scholarly comics.3  To date, it has published four books.

At the same time, for over 30 years, Acfas, the main organization dedicated to advancing and promoting research, innovation and scientific literacy in French in Canada,4  has been using its Concours de vulgarisation de la recherche competition to foster research sharing through four media: text, audio, video and, of course, comics.5

Since 1993, this contest has encouraged researchers to adapt their work for non-experts, helping to disseminate their findings to the general public. The winners of the 33rd edition of the contest will be announced at the 93rd Acfas conference, taking place May 11 to 15, 2026, at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. The awards ceremony will be on May 12. 
 

Vous avez détruit la beauté du monde

Scholarly comics in French at uOttawa

Given the interest in scholarly comics, it’s not surprising to see uOttawa researchers turning to this medium to share their findings.

In 2020, researchers André Cellard (a historian and professor emeritus in the Department of Criminology), Patrice Corriveau (a sociologist, criminologist and full professor in the Department of Criminology) and Isabelle Perreault (a historian and full professor in the Department of Criminology) joined with comic book artist Christian Quesnel to publish Vous avez détruit la beauté du monde : le suicide scénarisé au Québec depuis 1763 (Moelle Graphik).

Using coroners’ records, the authors present a history of suicide as a final scene, using letters and testimonies. As the publisher explains, “this work is inspired by the discovery in the office of the Quebec justice of the peace of over 20,000 files in which the coroner’s finding was death by suicide within the province’s territory between 1763 and 1986.”

Thanks to Quesnel’s illustrations, the comic allows us to “reconstitute the final act of the suicide” with sensitivity, restraint and dignity, far from the “clinical, often very crude, descriptions found in the archives.”

Vous avez détruit la beauté du monde was very well received by critics and the media, winning the Grand prix de la Ville de Québec, awarded annually by the Festival Québec BD for the best French-language comic book published in the province.

Imaginons les soins virtuels du futur avec les francophones de l’Ontario : Enquête narrative et ateliers de cocréation

In a totally different vein, in 2024, Sylvie Grosjean (full professor, Department of Communication) and her team collaborated with comic book artist Martin PM to create a short graphic work on the future of remote health care for Franco-Ontarians, Imaginons les soins virtuels du futur avec les francophones de l’Ontario : Enquête narrative et ateliers de cocréation.

The comic takes a whimsical look at the findings of a study on the future of digital health care for Franco-Ontarian minorities, which used a co-design approach to understand the use and social acceptance of digital health technology. The study was conducted from 2021 to 2024 by the International Francophonie Research Chair on Digital Health Technologies.

As part of the project, researchers invited Francophones to take part in co-creation workshops, to imagine the online care model they’d like to see in Ontario. Using different scenarios, participants were able to share their preferences and concerns, drawing “the outlines of a model for accessible, connected, integrated and continuous care for Francophone minorities.”6  

Martin PM’s comic artistry summarized feedback from participants, as well as three essential accessibility criteria identified by the research team subsequent to its analysis.

« C’est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays! » : carnet de rencontres, d’Ani kuni à Kiuna

Discover our collections

Have we piqued your curiosity? You’re in luck. The University of Ottawa Library offers many French-language scholarly comics in different disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, criminology, nursing, health sciences, and more.    

One example is « C’est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays! » : carnet de rencontres, d’Ani kuni à Kiuna by anthropologist Emmanuelle Dufour (also patron of the 32nd edition of Acfas’ research communication contest), published by Éditions Écosociété (2021). This work is based on Dufour’s research-creation doctoral work at Concordia University in art education, which earned her the Governor General’s Gold Medal.

In the book, Dufour looks at the gulf that continues to exist between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous Quebecers. She explores the different relationships each has to identity and territory; the ignorance of non-Indigenous people of Indigenous culture, history and issues; the tensions caused by the Oka crisis; and the colonial narrative transmitted in school and in popular culture.

But most of all, the author explores her own unease as a white settler and as a privileged and ignorant Francophone, an unease that persists throughout her encounters with individuals from various Indigenous nations in Quebec. In the book’s afterword, Dufour explains her process in this way:

“‘C’est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays!’ : carnet de rencontres, d’Ani kuni à Kiuna is thus the thoughtful, relational side of my research on Indigenous education. It is meant to be a preparatory tool for an encounter, inviting each of us to listen to our own ‘inner drum,’ to add our own short history to the large colonial narrative that is ours.”7 
 

Bande de chercheurs, chercheuses : un dialogue entre recherche scientifique et création graphique

More recently, the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) published a collective work, Bande de chercheurs, chercheuses : un dialogue entre recherche scientifique et création graphique (2026). This multidisciplinary initiative matched 13 UQO comic art students with 13 researchers from the same university to help the latter better publicize their work. According to Rémi Quirion, chief scientist of Quebec, the project allows authors to convey the value of academic work to the general public. In the book’s foreword, he says:

“This way of communicating and passing on knowledge is now becoming essential, as disinformation takes up space and discourse becomes polarized. To inform the discussions and questioning that concern our fellow citizens, scholarship must occupy more of the public square. In associating with artists to discuss their research, scholars have a more engaging avenue to share their discoveries and explain their research findings, as well as the process of scholarship.”8

You can read « C’est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays! », Bande de chercheurs, chercheuses, as well as many other scholarly comics in French from our collections.

Here are some reading suggestions to sink your teeth into:

Learn more about Francophone scholarly comics, issues related to them and their impact on knowledge dissemination:

Notes

1- Maude Cucchi, “Quand la vulgarisation scientifique se décline en bande dessinée,” University Affairs, May 10, 2022; Cailynn Klingbeil, “Research re-imagined,” University Affairs, May 3, 2023; and Maxime Bilodeau, “Holy Eureka, Batman!,” University Affairs, August 6, 2025.

2- Maël Rannou. “Depuis la table à dessin : transmettre la science du côté des auteurs,” Alternative francophone 3(1), 2022, p. 20.

3- Virginie Soffer, “‘Enquêtes scientifiques’: quand la science s’illustre autrement,” UdeM nouvelles, October 10, 2024.

4- Acfas, « Qui sommes-nous », May 4, 2026, https://www.Acfas.ca/Acfas/qui-sommes-nous.

5- Audrey-Maude Falardeau (ed.) et al, Racontez-moi… 30 ans de vulgarisation scientifique [a 30th anniversary collection of simplified scholarship texts entered in Acfas’ research communication competition] (Acfas, 2023).

6- Sylvie Grosjean and Martin PM [Patenaude-Monette], “De la recherche à la bande dessinée…,” in Imaginons les soins virtuels du futur avec les francophones de l’Ontario : Enquête narrative et ateliers de cocréation, International Francophonie Research Chair on Digital Health Technologies (University of Ottawa, 2024).

7- Emmanuelle Dufour, « C’est le Québec qui est né dans mon pays! » : carnet de rencontres, d’Ani kuni à Kiuna (Écosociété, 2021), 171.

8- Murielle Laberge, Jean-Charles Andrieu de Lévis, Simon Beaudry, Julien Doris et al, Bande de chercheurs, chercheuses : un dialogue entre recherche scientifique et création graphique (Université du Québec en Outaouais, 2026), n.p.

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