Z Comer Guest Lecture "BANNED: Censorship in the Arts" at Muskingum University

I was invited to give a guest lecture to the ENG311: Young Adult Literature class at Muskingum University. My lecture “BANNED: Censorship in the Arts” was designed to help provide history and context around the national discussions of banning creative works with controversial content; specifically “Gender Queer”.

Students in the class were assigned to read not only the book “Gender Queer” but also news articles about the censorship and banning of that book in nearby local communities. My talk was designed to help students understand the complicated and nuanced discourse around freedom of speech and expression, legality of censorship, and the history of controversial artworks in public spaces.

Students were shown examples of banned and protested works of art spanning the 1500s to present day. Afterwards we explored the rating systems in place in various media such as film, television, and video games, and discussed if such a system should or could be implemented for books and graphic novels.