"Lissa": An EthnoGraphic Experiment

The paper analyzes a recent experiment in the collaborative production of ethnographic knowledge and the use of the graphic novel form as an alternative to the conventional academic monograph. Lissa: A Story about Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution (2017) is discussed here as a useful tool in the age of globalization for building recognition of the need to protect the lives of people other than our immediate kin, tribe, race, or nation. The paper argues that both the collaborative research behind the story and the formal experimentation stem from the authors’ sense of accountability to their informants. By telling a story about distant others who are given names and faces, Lissa’s authors encourage readers to develop empathy across borders.