Every year, the Danish Ethnographic Society awards a communication award to individuals or groups who have made a special effort to bring anthropological knowledge to a wider audience. This year, the award goes to Mette Lind Kusk, postdoc at the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University.

About this year's award winner, Frederik Vejlin from the board of the Danish Ethnographic Society says:

"Mette Lind Kusk receives the award in recognition of the great work of connecting drawing and graphic forms of expression with ethnography, especially with the comic strip Nuances: An everyday life after flight. Although she also makes a growing contribution to the development of drawing as an ethnographic method, Mette receives the prize in particular as a result of her commitment to rethinking the relationship between graphic communication and anthropological knowledge, which manages to both embrace a wider audience for anthropology and make visible the nuances and complexity of human experiences in an inspiring and present way."

Graphic anthropology as a professional field
For Mette Lind Kusk, the award is an important professional recognition:

"The fact that a niche such as graphic anthropology, and specifically an ethnographic comic such as Nuances, is recognized by peers and considered to have relevance within our discipline, makes me incredibly happy and proud. The award helps to emphasise that drawing and graphic forms of expression are taken seriously, and that the comic book format has something to offer when it comes to collaborative anthropology and research communication."

She points out that in recent years there has been a growing interest in exploring the potential of drawing as an anthropological method and analysis.

From diary sketches to research communication
Mette Lind Kusk has always been interested in drawing as both a form of expression and a form of cognition:

"Drawing is not just communication – it is also a way of connecting to what you experience and observe. When you translate experiences into drawing, it encourages a special kind of thinking and sensing," she says.

In her work on "Nuances", she collaborated with young people with refugee backgrounds and two professional illustrators to create characters and stories.

"The process of creating the comic has been just as important as the final product. I think it's the combination of the aesthetics, pace and anchoring of the comic book in the lives of real people that captures the reader."

Anthropology with body, senses and aesthetics
The comic strip Nuances conveys complex experiences in a quiet and present way, and it is precisely the balance between the documentary and the artistic that occupies this year's award winner:

"As an anthropologist, I don't think we are only obliged to convey the factual. We must also convey lived life – the sensual, the contradictory and the complicated. Comics can appeal to the reader intellectually, emotionally, and sensually, and that's a gift."

According to Mette Lind Kusk, the comic format can do something very special:

"When you are researching migration and want to pave the way for people with refugee experience stories to reach a wide audience, comics can create a connection between big ideas and concrete lives. They can show how abstract concepts such as refugee conventions or financial benefits affect the everyday lives of specific families."

"Nuances" can be borrowed from libraries across the country, and schools can borrow physical copies as class kits via the Centre for Teaching Resources: https://mitcfu.dk/MaterialeInfo/?faust=140998877

Link to the comic

Contact

Mette Lind Kusk, Postdoc
Department of Anthropology
School of Culture and Society
Aarhus University
Mail: melk@au.dk