Since 2010, first for the BilBOlbul International Comics Festival and then for A occhi aperti: Disegnare il contemporaneo, Hamelin has been organizing a series of events in collaboration with the University of Bologna: up until 2018 with the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy (which later became the School of Letters and Cultural Heritage), and since 2019 with the Erasmus Mundus Master's Program – European Literary Cultures and the Doctoral Program in Literary and Philological Cultures.

The project's cornerstone is the "Seminar on European Comics," established in the 2009/2010 academic year and intended for students of the master's degree program in European Literary Cultures, part of the Erasmus Mundus program. The program includes, in addition to the University of Bologna, the Université de Haute-Alsace, as well as the Université de Strasbourg (France), the Aristoteleion Panepistimion Thessaloniki (Greece), the Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal), the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Dakar), the Russian State University for the Humanities (Russia), and the University of Mumbai (India).



2025 PROGRAM
The masterclasses will be held at DAS, Via del Porto 11/2

Sat., Nov. 22, 12:30 p.m. | An Echo from Within
Lika Nüssli in conversation with Federica Lucchesini, moderated by Valeria Cavallone and Giordana Piccinini

Sat., Nov. 22, 3:00 p.m. | The Lateral Is Political
Hurricane in conversation with Vittorio Giacopini, moderated by Emilio Varrà

Sat., Nov. 22, 4:30 p.m. | Phantom Reflection
with B*MO, Dario Sostegni, and Raffaele Sorrentino, moderated by Matteo Gaspari

Sun., Nov. 23, 3:00 p.m. | Representing the Invisible
David B. in conversation with Emanuele Dattilo, moderated by Alessio Trabacchini

Every year about fifteen international students participate in the seminar. After being introduced to the language of comics, they meet Ad occhi aperti guest artists, whose panels they record, transcribe, translate, and edit during the writing workshop that concludes the seminar.

These transcriptions are published as proceedings of the meetings in a series of volumes edited by Alberto Sebastiani, first issued in the series "Conversazioni a vignetta" (CLUEB, 2012-2013), then as "Nuove conversazioni a vignetta" (I libri di Emil, since 2014).