ChinaComx PhD Candidate Astrid Y. Xiao will present a paper at the Comics Studies Society (CSS) Annual Conference 2026. The theme of the conference this year is Everything I Know, I Learned From Comics. The conference will be held at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University from June 11-13, 2026. It brings together scholars, educators, librarians, artists, and practitioners to explore how comics shape teaching and learning across different educational and cultural contexts.
As part of Panel 1C, “Comics Ecology, Ecology Comics” in Sullivant 225, Astrid will present “From Panels to Planet: Chinese Eco-Comics” on Thursday, June 11, from 9:00-10:15 AM ET. The moderator of this panel is Kate Kelp-Stebbins, University of Oregon. Astrid’s paper examines the ideological and narrative potential of lianhuanhua as a visual narrative form for cultivating ecological consciousness. She traces how these comics rendered environmental concerns visible and emotionally accessible to young readers, from socialist-era narratives of frugality and resource conservation to post-1980s works that promoted environmental ethics through playful, intertextual storytelling and literary imagination.