A guest lecture by Sherine Hamdy, Associate Professor of Anthropology,

University of California, Irvine, & Lissa’s co-creator. She is also the Series Editor for University of Toronto Press’ ethnoGRAPHIC series

Sherine Hamdy will discuss her move from medical anthropological research to working on creating a graphic novel, featuring women from extraordinarily different circumstances each facing a medical decision the other can’t understand. Lissa, which takes place against the backdrop of Egypt’s popular uprisings, is informed by Hamdy’s ethnographic research in Egypt on the vulnerabilities that expose people to kidney and liver disease, and the difficulties of accessing proper treatment. The work also draws on Coleman Nye’s research in the U.S. on the social and political calculus of managing genetic risk for breast and ovarian cancer within a commercial healthcare system.