Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0003-3946-1357

Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Art

Second Department

Computer Science

Reader 1

Kasper Kovitz

Reader 2

Alyson Ogasian

Reader 3

Gautam Agarwal

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2024 Ella Lehavi

Abstract

As a queer Jew who grew up surrounded by immigrant cultures and communities, I find myself in a liminal space between my identities and the dominant culture of my country– one where my perspective on gender and my cultural experiences aren’t fully understood by the world I exist in. Comics and cartoons are an explorational platform for concepts of reality and identity; they are one of very few spaces where I see my identities explored with so much depth and care.

Cartoons and comics exist in between realistic depictions and abstraction. This makes them a great place to express all sorts of “in-between”-ness: in between Jewish and American, in between gender presentations, in between technology and human. As someone whose identity carries much “in-between”ness, I worry about being accepted for who I am. Comics let me be playful, cartoony, and silly but also open and honest. Sharing my comics lets me build a space for myself.

In my comic, I aim to use the boundaries between humans and robots to communicate my experiences with Jewish, immigrant, and agender identities. Additionally, I take advantage of the properties of comics such as stylistic abstractions, panels, and gutter space to visually narrate those experiences. I draw on Jewish comics and graphic novels such as Maus and Blood of the Virgin, gender-nonconformity and queerness in comics from such as Let’s Get Burgers and Nimona, Scott McCloud’s theory around the visual language of comics, and theory around cyborgs from authors such as Donna Haraway, to create my comic and illustrated wall display.

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