SCVN in the classroom: Presentations in New York City – April 24 & 29, 2026

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 by Tobi Dahmen and Akram Al Saud that grew out of personal interviews between Al Saud, a former political prisoner, and Dahmen.

The graphic novel recounts Akram Al Saud’s experiences as a nineteen-year-old architecture student in Aleppo, whose life was upended by an unjust arrest in 2010. After nine months in Assad’s prisons, he joined the revolution, endured further arrests, and was finally forced to flee to Europe in 2016.

Charlotte discusses Al-Faẓia’ to introduce SCVN’s collaborative approach to visual storytelling, foregrounding reciprocity, care, and survivor agency. She considered how the collaboration between Al Saud and Dahmen shapes the representation of Al Saud’s experiences through visual art and discussed the ethical questions that emerge when artists and survivors work together to represent human rights abuses and mass violence.

Al-Faẓia’ – The Horror. Surviving Syria’s Prisons will be published by University of Toronto Press in November 2026. 

More information about the book is available on the publisher’s website: 
https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781049809014