Nick Sousanis
{{short description|American scholar, art critic, and cartoonist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nick Sousanis
| birthname = Walter Nickell Sousanis
| image = Nick Sousanis 2015.jpg
| caption = Sousanis at the 2015 Texas Book Festival.
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Michigan
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Cartoonist, scholar, teacher, art critic
| networth =
| education = B.A., Western Michigan University
Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
| known_for = TheDetroiter.com
Unflattening
| spouse =
| footnotes =
| children =
| website = http://spinweaveandcut.com/
}}
Walter Nickell "Nick" Sousanis is an American scholar, art critic, and cartoonist; a co-founder of the TheDetroiter.com, he is also the first person at Columbia University to write a dissertation entirely in a comic book format.{{cite web|title=Unflattening: A Dissertation in Comics Form Reimagines Scholarship|url=http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/news-events/unflattening-a-dissertation-in-comics-form-reimagines-scholarship/| publisher = UCLA Digital Humanities|accessdate=28 March 2015}}{{cite web|title=Unflattening: How a Dissertation in Comics Form Reimagined Scholarship and Academic Writing|url=https://english.princeton.edu/events/unflattening-how-dissertation-comics-form-reimagined-scholarship-and-academic-writing| publisher = Department of English, Princeton University|accessdate=28 March 2015}}
Sousanis believes that comics are powerful teaching tools{{cite web | last = booksadventures | title = Unflattening: Thinking Through Comics, Nick Sousanis at Microsoft Research | publisher = MIT Center for Civic Media | date = 28 June 2013 | url = https://civic.mit.edu/blog/natematias/unflattening-thinking-through-comics-nick-sousanis-at-microsoft-research | accessdate = 29 March 2015 }} and has developed courses on comics at Teachers College and Parsons.{{cite web | last = Culbertson | first = Hilary | title = Teaching with Comics: Nick Sousanis' Comics Classroom | publisher = HASTAC | date = 16 January 2014 | url = http://www.hastac.org/blogs/hilary-culbertson/2014/01/16/teaching-comics-nick-sousanis-comics-classroom | accessdate = 29 March 2015 }} In addition to his classroom teaching, Sousanis' artwork has been exhibited in such venues as Microsoft Research in Seattle.{{cite web | last = Matias | first = J. Nathan | title = Comics in the Classroom Guest Post: Nick Sousanis of Teachers College, New York | publisher = The Signal in Transition | date = 14 June 2012 | url = http://matthewfinch.me/2012/06/14/comics-in-the-classroom-guest-post-nick-sousanis-of-teachers-college-new-york/ | accessdate = 29 March 2015 }} He publishes articles on teaching with comics in the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy and other venues.{{Citation | last = Sousanis | first = Nick | title = Threads: A Spinning Fable | journal = Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | date = 2014 | doi=10.1080/15505170.2014.893216 | pages=102–106| s2cid = 191460850 }} In addition to publishing, Sousanis has spoken at symposiums and conferences around the world.{{cite web | last = Sousanis | first = Nick | title = About | publisher = Spin Weave and Cut | date = 2015 | url = http://spinweaveandcut.com/about/ | accessdate = 29 March 2015 }} The noteworthiness of Sousanis' contribution to the field of academics has been discussed in Inside Higher Ed{{cite web | last = Mulhere | first = Kaitlin | title = Seeing in New Dimensions | publisher = Inside Higher Ed | date = 17 March 2015 | url = https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/17/comic-book-dissertation-demonstrates-capacity-picture-writing | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }} and The Chronicle of Higher Education.{{cite web | last = Dunn | first = Sydni | title = The Amazing Adventures of the Comic-Book Dissertator | publisher = Vitae, The Chronicle of Higher Education | date = 28 Feb 2014 | url = https://chroniclevitae.com/news/361-the-amazing-adventures-of-the-comic-book-dissertator | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }}
Biography
A former professional tennis player and instructor, Sousanis majored in mathematics at Western Michigan University.{{cn|date=February 2020}}
Sousanis and his brother John Sousanis co-founded thedetroiter.com in October 2002, where he served as editor in chief.{{cite web | title = Nick Sousanis | publisher = Sauve Art Foundation | date = nd | url = http://www.sauveartfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=289:nicksousanis&catid=60:seasonone&Itemid=112 | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }} He also contributed arts coverage for the Detroit Metro Times.{{cite web | last = Carducci | first = Vince | title = Play right | publisher = Detroit Metro Times | date = 14 June 2006 | url = http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/play-right/Content?oid=2184853 | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }} He became the biographer of legendary Detroit artist Charles McGee.{{cite web | last = Sousanis | first = Nick | title = Charles McGee at 90: Mongerson Gallery Chicago Exhibition Essay | publisher = HASTAC | date = 19 September 2014 | url = http://www.hastac.org/blogs/nsousanis/2014/09/19/charles-mcgee-90-mongerson-gallery-chicago-exhibition-essay | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }}
While he was living in Detroit, Sousanis' own artwork appeared in a number of shows in the Detroit area, including a billboard for the Ferndale, Michigan Public Art Project.{{cite web | title = The Detroiter's Own Nick Sousanis Does a Ferndale Driveby! | publisher = thedetroiter.com | date = April 2004 | url = http://www.thedetroiter.com/APR04/ns_billboard.html | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }} and he served as a board member and, for a period, the chairman of the non-profit arts organization Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID).{{cite web | title = Nick Sousanis | publisher = Imagining America | date = nd | url = http://imaginingamerica.org/fg-item/nick-sousanis/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131016152431/http://imaginingamerica.org/fg-item/nick-sousanis/ | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2013-10-16 | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }} In recognition of his accomplishments in the arts community of Southeastern Michigan, Sousanis was selected as one of Crain's Detroit Business's "40 under 40" for 2006.{{cite web | title = Meet Crain's 40 Under 40, Class of 2006 | publisher = Wayne State University Public Relations | date = 25 September 2006 | url = http://media.wayne.edu/report.php?id=318 | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }}{{Citation | last = Shea | first = Bill | title = 40 Under 40: Nick Sousanis, 33 | journal = Crain's Detroit Business | volume = 22| issue = 39 | pages = 26 | date = 25 September 2006 | url = http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/22554182/40-under-40-nick-sousanis-33 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402111204/http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/22554182/40-under-40-nick-sousanis-33 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2 April 2015 }} In 2007, Sousanis was appointed the founding Director of Exhibitions for Work @ Detroit,{{cite web | last = Voss | first = Elizabeth H. | title = YMCA buys thedetroiter.com | publisher = Crain's Detroit Business | date = 20 June 2008 | url = http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20080620/DM01/429853907 | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }}{{cite web | last = Kantrowitz | title = Thursday Presenters | publisher = International Drawing and Cognition Research | date = 23 October 2013 | url = http://drawingandcognition.pressible.org/akantrowitz/thursday-presenters | accessdate = 28 March 2015 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402133806/http://drawingandcognition.pressible.org/akantrowitz/thursday-presenters | archivedate = 2 April 2015 }} an exhibition space in Detroit operated by the University of Michigan School of Art & Design.
In early 2008, Sousanis moved from Detroit to New York City to pursue a Doctorate of Education in Interdisciplinary Studies at Columbia University's Teachers College.{{Citation | last = Mitter | first = Siddhartha | title = Student Profile: Sketches of an Educator | journal = Inside | volume = 17 | issue = 4 | date = 27 February 2012 | url = http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news.htm?articleID=8406&pub=6&issue=287 }} At that point TheDetroiter.com was sold to the YMCA.
In 2011, Sousanis organized the 2011 Game Show NYC.{{cite web|title=Game Show NYC 2011|url=http://www.gameshownyc.com/|accessdate=28 March 2015}} Talks were given by Maxine Greene, Tony Wagner, Fred Goodman, and Donald Brinkman at the concurrent conference for Creativity, Play, and Imagination Across Disciplines.{{cite web | last = Hoelzle | first = Liz | title = Creativity, Play, and the Imagination Across Disciplines | publisher = The Department of Arts & Humanities at Teachers College, Columbia University | date = 1 March 2011 | url = http://artsandhumanities.pressible.org/lizhoelzle/creativity-play-and-the-imagination-across-disciplines | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }}
Sousanis defended his dissertation, titled "Unflattening: A Visual-Verbal Inquiry into Learning in Many Dimensions," at Teachers College, Columbia University in May 2014.{{cite web | last = Davidson | first = Cathy N. | title = What Is a Dissertation? New Models, Methods, Media | publisher = HASTAC | date = 28 August 2014 | url = http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2014/08/28/what-dissertation-new-models-methods-media | accessdate = 28 March 2015 }} His dissertation was published by Harvard University Press in April 2015 as Unflattening;{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-67474-443-1|title=Unflattening |publisher=Publishers Weekly|accessdate=25 March 2015}} the New York Times called it:
{{blockquote|a genuine oddity, a philosophical treatise in comics form. 'Flatness,' for Sousanis's purposes, is not the quality of abstraction that Clement Greenberg lauded in modern art, but the lamentable condition of the inhabitants of Edwin A. Abbott's 'Flatland': the inability to understand that there might be more than one can immediately perceive. The solution he proposes is admitting visual elements, and especially drawings, into the intellectual domain of language. (Psst — he's talking about comics!)"Wolk, Douglas. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/05/29/books/review/31wolk-comics.html "Comics: Nick Sousanis’s "Unflattening," Drawn and Quarterly’s celebration of 25 years and more,"]New York Times Book Review (May 29, 2015).}}
Unflattening won the 2015 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, taking top honor as book of the year.{{cite web|url=http://news.psu.edu/story/405155/2016/04/19/arts-and-entertainment/penn-state-announces-winner-lynd-ward-prize-graphic|title=Penn State announces winner of the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year - Penn State University|publisher=}}
In 2015, Sousanis accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary, where he taught about comics.{{cite web | title = Walter (Nick) Sousanis | publisher = Department of English, University of Calgary | date = nd | url = https://english.ucalgary.ca/manageprofile/profiles/walter-nick-sousanis | accessdate = 29 March 2015 }} In Fall 2016, joined the School of Humanities and Liberal Studies at San Francisco State University as an assistant professor.{{cite web | title = Walter (Nick) Sousanis | publisher = School of Humanities and Liberal Studies, SFSU | date = nd | url = http://humanitiesliberalstudies.sfsu.edu/news-all/346 | accessdate = 19 April 2016}}
In 2018, Sousanis won the Eisner Award for Best Short Story for "A Life in Comics: The Graphic Adventures of Karen Green".{{cite web|url=https://www.comic-con.org/awards/eisner-awards-current-info|title=Eisner Awards Current Info|date=17 December 2014|publisher=}}
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- [http://spinweaveandcut.com/ Spin, Weave, and Cut - Nick Sousanis' Blog]
- [http://spinweaveandcut.blogspot.com/2010/11/dissertation-preface-to-unflattening.html "Unflattening: A Verbal-Visual Inquiry to Curiosity" excerpts]
- [http://www.thedetroiter.com TheDetroiter.com]
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Category:University of Michigan faculty
Category:San Francisco State University faculty