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Paper short abstract

This contribution explores the analytical, representational and collaborative potential of graphic novels for anthropologists working in adversarial settings, such as criminal trials, where sound and visual recordings are prohibited.

Paper long abstract

“Criminal defence generally involves defending criminals, I mean, it’s not defending activists (…) it can be very Manichean (…); it forces you to adopt extremely caricatural positions, between the good and the bad guys.” The everyday work of my informant, a criminal lawyer, contrasts with her experience of defending climate activists in Swiss criminal courts. In these hearings, where climate activists are prosecuted for minor violations of the criminal code such as unlawful entry or preventing an official act, black and white positions coexist with more subtle discourses and practices. These discourses and practices, along with their distinctive affective arrangements (Bens 2018) – e.g. judges showing understanding for the accused, prosecutors joking with defence lawyers – are often ephemeral and remain concealed in written legal decisions, while audio and visual recordings are prohibited.

Consequently, this contribution proposes to investigate the potential of graphic ethnography (Bonanno 2025; Thessodopoulos 2022) or ethno/graphy (Atalay et al. 2019) to analyse and represent anthropologically nuanced research findings about sites whose polarised features seem to be exacerbated in text. Building on feminist approaches to courtroom ethnography (Faria et al. 2020; Flower & Klosterkamp 2023) and featuring excerpts from a graphic novel developed collaboratively with an illustrator and my ethnographic interlocutors, this paper suggests that ethno/graphic novels generate deeper modes of engagement and knowledge production by foregrounding the multiplicity of courtroom encounters.