Central European - 1 years ago

CEU Associate Professor Claudio Sopranzetti from the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, has been awarded the 2024 Kate Browne Creativity in Research Award for the graphic novel “The King of Bangkok”, published by the University of Toronto Press (2021). The book, produced with collaborators Sara Fabbri and Chiara Natalucci, is a creative blending of ethnographic research and non-fiction visual storytelling, detailing the life of an internal migrant in Thailand.  The Kate Browne Creativity in Research Award, granted by the Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA) honors scholars whose project demonstrates social relevance, new ways of thinking about research design and methodology, and creative and compelling communication of research results to a public audience. It comes with a cash prize of $2,000 and as part of the recognition, Sopranzetti will present to members of the SEA on the topic of transforming research during their annual spring meeting.  Transforming Research for the Public  “This prize is an important recognition of the intellectual value of working with comics, beyond research dissemination and hopefully an invitation for other scholars to explore this medium,” said Sopranzetti, whose book makes ethnographic research accessible to a wide public through graphic form. It has been translated into four different languages and spent 18 weeks on the bestseller list in Thailand. Additional translations are forthcoming in German by Bahoe Books and in French by Gope Editions.  
Sopranzetti (center) conducting fieldwork in Bangkok. In assessing the book, SEA’s awards committee noted: “Sopranzetti and his team masterfully illustrate the economic and political history of Thailand through this highly compelling story.” They recognized the project for its careful attention to processes of political repression and economic restructuring – and how these processes can give rise to unexpected political alliances and informal economic networks.  Prior to this award, the book won the Best Read for the General Public Accolade in the IBP 2023 for Social Sciences from the International Convention of Asia Scholars, the 2021 Thai Editor Choice Award, the 2022 PROSE Best Non-Fictional Graphic Novel of the Association of American Publisher, the INDIES Bronze Medal for Best Graphic Novel, and was shortlisted for the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing.   Research to Classroom  At CEU, Sopranzetti and his collaborator Fabbri, an award-winning comic artist and art director, co-teach the course “Transforming Research into Graphic Form”, which was first offered in 2023 through the Visual Studies Platform. Built as an interdisciplinary lab, the course aims to introduce students to the language of comics, both as a conceptual framework and as a practical tool for production and dissemination of academic research.  
Illustration by Sara Fabbri from The King of Bangkok . “Over the course of several weeks, I saw my own ethnographic fieldwork about an elite Indian gated community go through the various stages of comic development, ending up as a succinct and impactful retelling of the sharp fractures between different groups of people that characterized my research site,” said MA student Stuti Mehta. She added: “By centering the narrative value of an otherwise factual and singular incident, the graphic form helped me identify and bring attention to themes in my research that had gone [previously] unnoticed.”   PhD student Dragan Djunda found that the step-by-step process taught in the CEU class opened new possibilities for presenting his research. He said: “I continually moved between the positions of an artist, scientist, and the public vis a vis the case I developed from my doctoral project. That helped me experience the uniqueness of each position, their requirements, points of view, and the ways of bridging the gaps between them.” Djunda said that the course created space for him to be more experimental and to think more inclusively about his audience as one that goes beyond academia.  “Being able to think expansively and experimentally about our research outputs is increasingly an essential skill in contemporary academia, but one in which our students are not often trained,” said Sopranzetti. In line with CEU’s stewardship of interdisciplinary research, “Transforming Research into Graphic Form” will be offered as a university-wide course open to students in all departments during the winter term of the 2024-25 academic year.   Unit: Department of Sociology and Social AnthropologyResearch Area: Sociology and Social AnthropologyCategory: NewsImage: Content Priority: High

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