{"id":12649,"date":"2024-01-25T15:44:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T15:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/01\/25\/punches-and-politics\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:26:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:26:39","slug":"punches-and-politics","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/01\/25\/punches-and-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Punches and politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Clark seniors study how superheroes frame contemporary issues<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div class=\"csidebar right\">\n<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Recent episodes<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/12\/13\/religions-role-in-competitive-political-ethos\/\">Religion’s role in ‘competitive political ethos’<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/11\/30\/when-superpowers-are-super-imbalanced\/\">When superpowers are super imbalanced<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/11\/09\/grief-and-rage-as-commentary\/\">Grief and rage as commentary<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">During their first year at Clark, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/undergraduate\/programs\/majors-minors\/political-science\/\" aria-label=\"major in political science\">political science<\/a> majors Ruthie Brian ’24, Beiyna Chaparian ’24, and Anna Walker ’24 took a course that called for comic books rather than textbooks. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/academics\/undergraduate-curriculum\/first-year-intensives\/\" aria-label=\"First-Year Intensive info\">First-Year Intensive<\/a> course Comic Books and Politics with Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/ora-szekely\/\" aria-label=\"Ora Szekely bio\">Ora Szekely<\/a>, students used superhero tropes as a vehicle to analyze historical and contemporary politics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The course made such an impression on Brian, Chaparian, and Walker that the three took the concept and created an independent study for their senior year. They’ve been poring through comics and watching the latest superhero movies, exploring how the plots engage with global and national issues such as racial justice and immigration.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">As women and people of color portray more superheroes, a larger audience can see their lives reflected in the storylines, Chaparian says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having depth in characters and representation is important,” she says. “Watching ‘Ms. Marvel,’ I saw things that I could relate to in terms of what my family looks like and how my culture affects my identity.”<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite progress in representation, comics still contain disparities. The students have found that women superheroes typically have endured more trauma than their male counterparts, Walker says. Even the battle scenes display a gender imbalance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The idea of who has the right to violence is very fascinating to me,” Walker says. “Women’s violence is often on a smaller scale, or more social, compared to the massive wipeout of cities that we see in comics and movies like ‘The Avengers.’”<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">These combat scenes are an avenue for the trio to analyze the motives behind war.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">“No one considers themself evil,” Brian says. “People are going to justify their actions with either religion or another belief they hold.”<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Challenge. Change.<\/strong> is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4UuYAjq1d3Hq45cjwxoCNL\" aria-label=\"listen on spotify\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/challenge-change\/id1608025510\" aria-label=\"listen on Apple Podcasts\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flex wp-container-7 wp-block-columns alignfull no-gap photo-row\">\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: auto\">\n Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: auto\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_19201\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19201\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19201 size-medium-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2016-Ora-Szekely-015-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"Ora Szekely teaches a class at Clark\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19201\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Ora Szekely<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clark seniors study how superheroes frame contemporary issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12650,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12650,"section_label":"Challenge. Change. Podcast","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[225,223,245],"displayed_author":[237],"featured":[],"topic":[250,336,176,264,265,273,171,120,121],"class_list":["post-12649","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities","category-clark-community","category-social-sciences","displayed_author-melissa-hanson","topic-arts","topic-major-in-political-science","topic-podcast","topic-political-science","topic-politics-and-government","topic-social-change","topic-social-justice","topic-student-projects","topic-undergraduate-students"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Punches and politics | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/01\/25\/punches-and-politics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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