We are delighted to share that Akram Al Saud and Tobi Dahmen are featured in a short documentary on ARTE.TV, a public European cultural channel and online streaming platform. Left: Tobi and Akram recreating Akram’s prison cell size. Right: Akram and Tobi interviewing with ARTE.TV. Akram Al Saud, who studied architecture in Syria before being […]

Historical testimony influences artistic and pedagogical approaches to episodes of mass violence in a variety of mediums, from comics and graphic novels to films and even works of virtual reality. The Journal of History invites scholars from a broad range of disciplines to contribute to a special issue entitled ‘Historical Testimony and the Arts,’ which […]

SCVN is seeking a part-time Digital Communications & Website Lead to maintain the project website and coordinate media outputs. This is a term position, with the opportunity to extend, and is open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The job description is outlined below. Any inquiries may be directed to Project Manager Jennifer Sauter at […]

Filmmaker Andy Rutter recently discussed making his documentary Kokum Dorothy’s Story: We Can Still Sing and Dance with Ghada Youssef, UVic PhD student and fellow filmmaker. This film is part of SCVN’s Turtle Island Research Cluster and features conversations between residential school survivor Dorothy Visser and Métis illustrator Natasha Donovan as they discuss their upcoming graphic novel, […]

We are pleased to announce that original watercolours, sketches, and excerpts from the graphic novel Emmie Arbel: The Colour of Memory (Emmie Arbel. Die Farbe der Erinnerung) will be featured in an exhibit at the Buchenwald Memorial in Germany from July 24 to October 25, 2026. The exhibit is titled ‘Emmie Arbel. The Color of Memory. An exhibition with […]

We welcome you to join the German book launch for Gib nicht auf! Wie eine Junge Ezidin den Völkermord überlebt (Don’t Give Up! How a young Yezidi survived the genocide) at the Fux eG arts cooperative in Hamburg, Germany on Thursday, November 12, 2026. This graphic novel is a collaboration between artist Birgit Weyhe and […]

Project manager Jennifer Sauter was invited to participate a three-day workshop on “Healing Trauma in the Anthropocene” from May 26-28, 2026, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. This workshop was co-organized by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Global Resilience Partnership, and the Anthropocene Laboratory. The workshop brought together international expertise spanning […]

We are delighted to announce that SCVN research assistant Ghada Youssef has been selected as one of the five winners of the 2026 Storytellers Challenge, presented by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada! This challenge was open to postsecondary students, inviting them to show Canadians, in up to three minutes or […]

On February 9, 2026, the Emily Carr University Research Ethics Board (ECU-REB) hosted ‘Trauma-Informed Research Ethics’, a conversation featuring Dr. Charlotte Schallié (University of Victoria) and moderated by Dr. Alla Gadassik (Chair of the REB). The event brought together ECU faculty, students, researchers, and research ethics administrators from other regional institutions to discuss ethics of […]

SCVN’s third graphic novel, Al-Faẓia’ الفظیع – The Horror: Surviving Syria’s Prisons, was published in German by Carlsen Verlag on May 26, 2026. Created through a collaboration between artist Tobi Dahmen and survivor Akram Al Saud, the book draws on extensive interviews and personal encounters to share Akram’s story. Arrested at the age nineteen while studying architecture […]

Guest blog by Ana-Maria Costa The final day of the AGM began with discussions of methods used for each research project and the development of the graphic novels. Duncan McCue, author of Indians Do Cry: A Father-Son Hockey Story, shared both his and Mike Auksi’s experiences throughout the writing and design process. Together they discussed […]

Guest blog by Ana-Maria Costa Our Annual General Meeting took place from June 10-12 in Winnipeg, Canada, and was facilitated by local host, Kjell Anderson with the University of Manitoba at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The AGM gathered researchers, students, educators and partners to deepen our shared commitment to human rights through education and visual […]

Have you ever wondered what makes graphic novels uniquely powerful for telling stories of injustice and human-rights abuse? How do they reach audiences and convey experiences in ways that traditional reports, journalism, or academic writing often cannot? Join artists, scholars, journalists, and storytellers for a conversation on graphic novels, visual storytelling, Indigenous narratives, and human […]

On April 24 and 29, 2026, Dr. Charlotte Schallié spoke to approximately 80 students at the Parsons School of Design and the LaGuardia Community College in New York City about the work of the Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives (SCVN) Project. Her presentation focused in particular on Al-Faẓia’ – The Horror. Surviving Syria’s Prisons, a SCVN-supported graphic novel […]

Excerpt from Al-Faẓia’ (University of Toronto Press, 2026) by Tobi Dahmen and Akram Al Saud. We are delighted to announce that SCVN’s third graphic novel, Al-Faẓia’ الفظیع – The Horror: Surviving Syria’s Prisons, will be published in German on May 26, 2026, by Carlsen Verlag. Al-Faẓia’ is the result of a collaboration between artist Tobi […]