PUM launches a collection of comic strips. The first two volumes address the problems of access to vaccination during the pandemic and the sociology of young people in public places.
A new collection entitled "Enquêtes scientifiques" is being launched this autumn by Presses de l’Université de Montréal (PUM), offering an original and accessible approach to disseminating scientific approaches in the form of comic strips. Directed by Valérie Amiraux, Professor of Sociology and Vice-Rector, Community and International Partnerships at the Université de Montréal, and Laurence Monnais, Professor of the History of Medicine and Public Health at the Institut des humanités en médecine de l’Université de Lausanne and Associate Professor in the Department of History at UdeM, the collection highlights eclectic research and draws on the talents of two Quebec cartoonists for the first volumes, Alexandra Dion-Fortin and Carolina Espinosa.
Chiller à Montréal, directed by Valérie Amiraux and illustrated by Alexandra Dion-Fortin, looks at young people’s behavior in public places, and Ces vaccinations qui (n’)ont (pas) eu lieu: chronique pandémique, by Laurence Monnais and Carolina Espinosa, addresses issues of access to care revealed by an action-research project carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, inaugurating the series.
A new PUM collection
The "Enquêtes scientifiques" collection was born of a reflection on how to disseminate scientific knowledge beyond the usual formats. Valérie Amiraux, a fan of graphic novels and comics, had already tried her hand at comics with Salomé et les hommes en noir, co-written with Francis Desharnais (Bayard, 2015). She finds in this form of writing a way to access a wider audience, but also to embody the result of a research project in a different way. "The movement towards different ways of disseminating research results has been more pronounced in the humanities and social sciences over the last ten years, sometimes as early as the master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation", she notes.
The collection aims to encourage researchers to consider these new ways of presenting their work, while remaining faithful to university presses. "It’s another form of language, another way of translating and transmitting research. The PUM have provided us with a choice setting, and have agreed to take the risk of embarking on something totally new without abandoning the rigor of their editorial work", declares Valérie Amiraux. The collection is aimed at audiences who might not be spontaneously attracted by conferences or the reading of scientific articles, but who would find themselves seduced by leafing through such a work on the shelves of a local bookshop. "In other words, this new PUM collection is all about accessibility: the format, the price, the editing - everything has been designed to make these books accessible," she continues.
Illustrating the workings of scientific inquiry
The series focuses on the investigative approach. Valérie Amiraux and Laurence Monnais aim to show how scientists conduct their research, from the formulation of hypotheses to data collection and validation of results, while incorporating the doubts, errors and adjustments inherent in the scientific process.
Valérie Amiraux explains: "The pandemic made me realize, in a brutal way, the extent to which the role of science is contested in the media and political spheres, on all fronts, whatever the discipline. Scientific work is often not only misunderstood, but also devalued. This collection, centered on the investigative approach, explains how scientists work, how their discoveries are made, and how their hypotheses are verified or not. It’s very important for me to show that scientific research is not a matter of opinion or ideology, but is based on a rigorous investigative approach."
She stresses the importance of making this process visible: "Investigation, a simple word often associated with police officers or journalists, illustrates this idea of step-by-step progression, of reflection guided by hypotheses and nourished by the interpretation of clues. Laurence [Monnais] and Carolina [Espinosa] demonstrate this in their work on the hesitation to vaccinate in the context of a pandemic, which was analyzed in the heat of the moment and revealed the extent to which under-vaccination in certain areas had little to do with reluctance to use the biological product. It’s essential to make this work accessible and to value these approaches to help us think collectively about our common world."
"Chiller à Montréal", directed by Valérie Amiraux and illustrated by Alexandra Dion-Fortin
Chiller à Montréal explores the behavior of young people in the city’s public parks through four stories. What do young people do in parks at night? What are their experiences of these places? Where do they fit in? Answers to these questions emerge as the stories unfold.
Based on ethnographic surveys carried out as part of the TRYSPACES: youth, spaces and transformations project, this book is the fruit of a multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers in geography, sociology, anthropology and urban studies. They observed young people in parks from Montréal-Nord to Pointe-aux-Trembles, to better understand the interactions between them and urban public spaces, bringing a fresh perspective to an often-debated subject.
Valérie Amiraux stresses the importance of going beyond simplistic opinions about young people. "Science is not an opinion. It’s not a matter of saying, for example, that what young people do conforms or doesn’t conform to certain values, expectations or rules. After hundreds of hours of observation in parks, Nathalie Boucher and Sarah-Maude Cossette draw up, in one of the four stories, the simple but politically powerful observation that teenage girls have no place to "be" in public space. Because of the way street furniture is designed - for very young children - or the way places are laid out - for team sports, for men", she says.
The research team’s choice to use the word chiller in the book’s title, a word that has become commonplace in the language of young people, reflects this observation that cuts across all four stories: "Chiller is being in the public space without necessarily having a specific activity. It’s not a sporting or musical demonstration, it’s simply ’being there’. But this state of being comes up against social constraints, urban realities, gender differences and social origins. Not everyone can hang out in a park at night, or easily navigate neighborhoods different from their own," says Valérie Amiraux. This book seeks to offer a fresh look at the day-to-day reality of many young people in Montreal, revealing dynamics that are often invisible or misunderstood in the public arena.
"Ces vaccinations qui (n’)ont (pas) eu lieu: chronique pandémique", by Carolina Espinosa and Laurence Monnais
Ces vaccinations qui (n’)ont (pas) eu lieu: chronique pandémique follows on from the work of Laurence Monnais, notably Vaccinations: le mythe du refus, published by PUM in 2019. This book offers an in-depth reflection on contemporary issues related to vaccination through the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic as lived and apprehended by Montreal’s most vulnerable, and most invisibilized, communities. The authors address the complexity of individual decisions in the face of vaccination, a complexity that was, to some extent, particularly evident in the urgency of the campaign launched at the turn of 2021, and which, at the same time, remained largely ignored in decision-making and public discourse.
The comic strip looks back at collective experiences that may have fuelled mistrust in several communities. Above all, the authors highlight the consequences of economic, geographical, administrative and cultural obstacles to vaccination. "It’s not enough for a vaccine to be free for it to be accessible", reminds Laurence Monnais, and this is a historical reality that we never forget.
"What interested me most as a health historian was trying to understand how past experiences, of medical violence or neglect by the state in particular, might have influenced certain resistance and apprehensions about vaccination," she explains. Underlying the book is a critique of the public discourse that has stigmatized the unvaccinated. Laurence Monnais insists on the need to recognize the heterogeneity of positions and, above all, to seek to understand the reasons for non-vaccination in the context of pandemics and health emergencies, but also beyond. To put it another way, for her "it’s urgent to address questions of accessibility and legitimate concerns".
Through their book, Laurence Monnais and Carolina Espinosa propose a renewal of public health approaches to individuals and groups who are the most invisible in the public and medical spheres. Laurence Monnais concludes by saying that "this comic strip allows us to think better so that we can do better next time, because there will be other pandemics and other massive vaccination campaigns".
