InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies
Torino, Italy
January 22-24, 2026
This fall, with two leading university presses each publishing a major new scholarly monograph (Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics by Eike Exner from Yale University Press and Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905–1989 by Andrea Horbinski from University of California Press), it’s clear that manga studies as an academic field is continuing its rapid growth and development. And now, a different university has announced plans for what going may very well become a global center for the study of Japanese comics.
And now, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Modern Cultures at the University of Torino (Italy) has announced that in January, it will host the inaugural symposium InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies, with a stated goal of establishing a forum for debate and discussion on manga as a “form” with particular narrative, visual, and cultural dimensions. The symposium will specifically recognize manga as complex objects, and will specifically welcome multidisciplinary approaches and perspectives grounded in fields such as:
- posthuman studies
- medical humanities
- translation studies
- narrative theory
- platform studies (including interplays between manga and other kinds of media)
Participants are invited to submit proposals for individuals presentations of approximately 20 minutes in length (300 words) or complete panels with up to 4 speakers to info.intomanga@gmail.com.
The deadline for submissions is September 15, and speakers will be notified by September 30.
InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies is partly funded by the Japan Foundation. The symposium organizing committee is composed of Dr. Jaqueline Berndt (Stockholm University, editor of last year’s The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime), Marta Fanasca (University of Bologna), Paolo La Marca (University of Catania), and Gianluca Coci, Edouardo Occhionero, Asuka Ozumi, and Anna Speccio (all University of Torino).
The full Call for Papers, with additional details, follows:
InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies
Torino (Italy), 22-24 January 2026
We are pleased to announce the first edition of InTO.MANGA – Critical Paths in Manga Studies, an international symposium dedicated to the critical and interdisciplinary exploration of manga. This event aims to inaugurate a long-term academic platform for manga studies in Europe, fostering sustained scholarly engagement with this influential medium.
Hosted in Turin, Italy, the symposium seeks to establish a vibrant forum for academic debate on manga as a narrative, visual, and cultural form. While manga has long occupied a central role in global popular culture, its theoretical and analytical depth has gained full recognition within the European research landscape. As Jaqueline Berndt (2012) notes, “creating a new field of manga studies is not easy… manga needs to be examined from the perspective of methodologies from many existing fields, including psychology, economics, history, art studies, legal studies, sociology, and literary studies”. With this initiative, we aim to foreground manga as a key object of inquiry across the contemporary humanities and social sciences, encouraging innovative, multidisciplinary, and critically informed approaches.
We welcome presentations that contribute to a broader understanding of manga and related
media as complex cultural texts (narrative, visual, social, and technological) and that examine their relevance in relation to current issues within (but not limited to):
- Posthuman studies
- Environmental humanities and ecocriticism
- Women’s, gender and queer studies
- Medical humanities, representations of care and caregiving
- Self referentiality and self narratives (such as essay manga and autobiographic manga)
- Translation, cultural adaptation and transnational reception
- Memory studies and trauma narratives
- Narrative theory and visual semiotics
- Relationship of manga to other media (such as anime, videogames, novels and so on)
We are particularly interested in contributions that bridge disciplinary boundaries and explore
manga as dynamic platforms where graphic expression intersects with political discourse and
societal transformation.
Format and Submissions
We invite proposals for 20-minute individual presentations or panels with a maximum of 4
panelists + 1 discussant. Submissions should include:
- A title
- An abstract of max. 300 words
- A short bio (max. 150 words), including institutional affiliation and email contact
A complete panel proposal must include a panel title and description (300 words), and an abstract for each presentation in the panel (200 words), as well as a short bio and contact for each panelist.
Please send your proposal abstract as a PDF document to info.intomanga@gmail.com with the
subject: “SURNAME InTO.MANGA 2026 proposal”.
Deadline for submissions: 15/09/2025
Notification of acceptance: 30/09/2025
The working languages of the symposium will be English and Japanese.
For questions or further information, please contact: info.intomanga@gmail.com
Scientific and Organizing Committee: Jaqueline Berndt, Gianluca Coci, Marta Fanasca, Paolo La
Marca, Edoardo Occhionero, Asuka Ozumi, Anna Specchio