Congratulations to V Rahbar (she/they), an iSchool PhD Student in her third year, for winning multiple awards during this academic year!
Rahbar has received the following awards:
- 2024 – 2025 Anne and George Piternick Student Research Award
- 2024 Frederick Luis Aldama Emerging BIPOC Comics Studies Leadership Award
- 2024 – 2026 Cordula and Gunter Paetzold Fellowship
In addition, her essay titled “Health & Wellness in the Community: The Art of Cindy Lozito,” was selected for publication in the Diasporican Art in Motion (DAM) database.
Rahbar also received funding through the Strategic Equity & Anti-Racism (StEAR) Enhancement Fund for their project, “Understanding Through Comics: A Comics and Comics Studies Journal Club.” The project is a year-long series centered around social-justice-oriented comics for faculty, staff, and students to learn about antiracism and equity together.
On the journal club, Rahbar says:
At the iSchool, I endeavor to connect students with social-justice-oriented comics through my research, service, and teaching activities. I am especially thankful for the support received for ‘Understanding Through Comics: A Comics and Comics Studies Journal Club.’ This project will take the form of a year-long meeting series around antiracism and equity-focused graphic narratives — providing a dedicated space both on-campus and virtually for reading comics as agents of social change and as a form of literature that can improve the academic lives of students as well as their own understanding of our world.
Everyone is welcome to join the journal club when it starts in September 2025. In the meantime, you can learn more about the UBC Comics Studies Research Cluster.
