Political Science Professor Kenton Worcester Quoted in The New York Times

The article concerns a video that House Representative Paul Gosar posted to Twitter, depicting himself as an anime character cutting the throat of House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Though the House has voted to censure Rep. Gosar for this post, Gosar claims that Ocasio-Cortez’s image in this video represents “the plague of illegal immigration,” arguing that it should not be construed as a threat against her personhood.

However, Dr. Worcester says that these images are bound to create an emotional response. “Images affect us in ways that are hard to predict, that have the power to shock us, that tell us something that we should have known. The power to push the boundaries of political discourse,” he says in the article.

Dr. Worcester is uniquely qualified to comment on this as a Professor of Political Science and author of eleven books, many of which discuss the role of comics within the political sphere. Notably, A Comics Studies Reader (2009) received the 2010 Peter C. Rollins Award as the year’s best work in the area of American studies and/or cultural studies. The Superhero Reader (2013) was nominated for a 2014 Eisner Award for Best Scholarly/Academic Work. He is currently teaching “Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Novels,” an Advanced Interdisciplinary Perspectives (AIP) course.

Congratulations, Dr. Worcester!