Award-winning editorial cartoonists from around the world will gather at Emory University for “Cartooning for Peace and Health,” a series of free public lectures and classroom discussions with an accompanying gallery exhibition, March 28-30.

Organized by Cartooning for Peace–America and sponsored by Emory’s Halle Institute for Global Learning, the symposium will explore the role of the cartoonist in the public sphere, with a special focus on politics, peacemaking and health.

"Because peace and health are inextricably linked, we decided to bring them together in the upcoming Cartooning for Peace-America symposium,” says Raymond Schinazi, chair of Cartooning for Peace–America’s board of directors and a renowned HIV/AIDS researcher at Emory and the Atlanta VA Medical Center. “Without individual and community health, true peace is impossible to achieve. As a variation on this theme, we are very excited to include a session on bioethics, which plays a leading role in both war and peace.”

Participating cartoonists

Chaired by Plantu, whose cartoons have graced the front page of Le Monde since 1985, and political cartoonist Michel Kichka, the event features a diverse lineup of 18 cartoonists from the Americas and the Mediterranean, including The New Yorker’s Liza Donnelly and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mike Luckovich.

Event highlights:

• The symposium kicks off with a 'Creativity Conversation' hosted by University Vice President and Secretary Rosemary Magee at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 28 at the Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Rd. An opening reception and cartoon exhibition will take place that evening.
• On Thursday, March 29, guests can meet the cartoonists at a cartooning demonstration and question-and-answer session at 10 a.m. at the Rollins School of Public Health.
• Paul Root Wolpe, director of Emory’s Center for Ethics, will lead a panel on how cartooning relates to bioethics and environmental health at 1 p.m. in the same location.
• Also on Thursday, a Spanish-speaking panel on cartooning and freedom of expression in Latin America moderated by Ricardo Gutiérrez-Mouat, director of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Emory, will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Few Hall, 4 Eagle Row on the Emory campus.
• Cartoonists will participate in a series of provocative discussions covering everything from the Arab Spring to sex in political cartoons to freedom of speech on Friday, March 30 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Emory Conference Center Hotel, 1615 Clifton Rd.

See the full schedule of each day’s events for more details.

All public sessions are free, but online registration is required.

About Cartooning for Peace

Emory last hosted a Cartooning for Peace event in 2007, when leading cartoonists delivered public lectures on such wide-ranging topics as “Women in Cartooning: A Different Perspective,” “Picturing Conflict, Envisioning Peace in the Middle East” and “The Art of Controversy: Where to Draw the Line?” 

The brainchild of famed French editorial cartoonist Jean Plantureux — otherwise known as Plantu — Cartooning for Peace was created in 2006 and announced by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. The first conference, held in October 2006 at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City and cosponsored by The Halle Institute, brought 12 international cartoonists together on the topic of "Unlearning Intolerance." Since that time, Cartooning for Peace, which is headquartered in Paris, has continually organized conferences and exhibitions showcasing cartoonists' expressions of peace. After several conferences were held in the United States (2007 in Atlanta and 2010 in Boston), Cartooning for Peace-America (CFP-A) formed as a U.S. non-profit organization in February 2009.

About The Halle Institute

Established in 1997 with a gift from Claus M. Halle, The Halle Institute for Global Learning is Emory’s premier venue for visits by heads of state, distinguished policymakers and influential public intellectuals from around the world. The Halle Institute’s programs strengthen faculty distinction, prepare engaged scholars and foster greater involvement from local, national and international communities.