JAN DESCARTES
jan@jandescartes.com
www.jandescartes.com
EDUCATION
CUNY Graduate Center, Masters of Liberal Sciences, Women’s, Sexuality, and Gender Studies Focus, 2017
Carnegie Mellon University, Masters of Fine Arts, 2007
Syracuse University, School of Visual and Performing Arts, Dual Bachelors of Arts in Illustration and English & Textual Studies, 2001
WORK EXPERIENCE
Booklyn, Inc, Curator and Education, 2019 - present
EDUCATION
Comics/Zine Programming, 2016 – present
Thematic comics and zine programming for youth, high school and university students, incarcerated and aging populations.
Zine Jam
Zine/comic workshop collaboration with Elvis B. to introduce and facilitate the creation of zines.
Booklyn, Inc., Old Stone House Workshop
SAGE
Brooklyn Public Library
Write to Read Day at PS 89
Drawing Through the Walls, Brooklyn Arts Council supported online comics workshops, which explores experiences of incarceration
Guest Lecture, Parsons
Additional Zine Workshops:
Booklyn, Inc., Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP), Amos Eno Gallery, Bronx Detention Center Memoir, Brooklyn Detention Center Zine Workshop with the Brooklyn Library, Queens Museum, Brooklyn Main Public Library, Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS), George Mason University, Brooklyn Heights Public Library Workshop, Interference Archive
Pop Gym, self-defense workshops
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS
NYPL Center for Research in the Humanities, Researcher, In Memoriam series, 2022
NY Historical Society, Short-Term Fellowship for In Memoriam series, 2022
Brooklyn Arts Council, Artist Grant for Drawing Through the Walls Program, 2020
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Antifascism in the Archive: Interference Archive’s Collaboration with no. NOT EVER,” co-authored, Radical History Review, 2020
“Feminist Curating with Our Comics, Ourselves” Comics and Critical Librarianship: Reframing the Narrative in Academic Libraries (ed. By Stephanie Grimm and Olivia Piepmeier, Library Juice Press), 2019
Never Forgets: Traumatic Trace Within Public Space, CUNY Academic Works, 2017
Our Comics, Ourselves Exhibition Catalog, co-ed. with Monica Johnson, Interference Archive, 2016
CONFERENCES/TALKS
Any Resemblance is Necessary: They Whys of Queer First Person Autobiographical Comics, Queers and Comics Conference, 2019
Digital Activism: Panel Discussion and Cryptoparty, Interference Archive, Coordinator/Moderator, 2018
Curatorial Talk, Our Comics, Ourselves, at Fenwick Gallery at George Mason University, 2017
Curatorial Talk, Queer Comics and Our Comics, Ourselves, at University of Connecticut at Waterbury, 2017
Curatorial Talk, Our Comics, Ourselves, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at University of Connecticut, 2016
Feminist Histories and Comics, Interference Archive, Co-moderator, 2016
2015 3rd Annual Students for Critical Animal Studies Conference, Vassar College, Pleasure in Domination: The role of Artist/Viewer in Jannis Kounellis’ “Untitled (12 Horses)," 2015
CLAGS, Queers and Comics Conference, Comic as Memoir Panel Discussion, 2015
CURATORIAL
Our Comics, Ourselves: Comics in the Time of Covid, boxset, pub. By Booklyn, Inc., 2021
Our Comics, Ourselves, Wasser Strassen Festival, Basel, Switzerland, 2018
No. NOT EVER., Interference Archive, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
Our Comics, Ourselves, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 2017
Our Comics, Ourselves, University of Connecticut at Waterbury, Waterbury, CT, 2017
Our Comics, Ourselves, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 2016
Our Comics, Ourselves Digital Gallery, coordinating ongoing online exhibition, 2016
Our Comics, Ourselves, Interference Archive, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
Self-Determination Inside/Out, Interference Archive, Brooklyn, NY, 2014
Transform, SHO Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2010
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Booklyn Bridge, 2021
Shout Your Abortion, 2018
Pop Gym Zine, 2017
Heartland Comic, 2014 - present