Ariela Freedman

Ariela Freedman is a Professor at Concordia University's Liberal Arts College, specializing in modernist literature, comics/graphic novels, and health humanities. Her SSHRC-funded research explores pain representation in comics, combining visual and textual analysis to address Elaine Scarry's 'unmaking' of pain through liminal storytelling.

• BA in Liberal Arts and English from Concordia University
• MA and PhD in English from New York University

Her academic work intersects with creative practice: she is a novelist with two award-winning books, including Arabic for Beginners (J.I. Segal/Mona Elaine Adilman Award, QWF finalist) and A Joy to be Hidden (QWF finalist). As a member of the Quebec Writers' Federation, she actively participates in Blue Metropolis literary festival.

Recent publications examine Charlotte Salomon's resistance art, Chris Ware's narrative structure, and intersections of trauma, gender, and modernism. She supervises graduate research in literary modernism, graphic narratives, and health humanities, emphasizing innovative research-creation projects.

• Routledge Press monograph on death and modernism (2003)
• Special section editor for Partial Answers on comics and canon (2015)

Scientific awards:

• J.I. Segal/Mona Elaine Adilman English Fiction Award
• QWF First Book Prize finalist (2017)
• QWF/Paragraphe Fiction Prize finalist (2019)