CURRENT POSITION Comic Arts Librarian, Special Collections and University Archives, and Co-Director, Center for Comics Studies in the College of Arts and Letters, San Diego State University DEGREE Certificate in Rare Books and Manuscripts, California Rare Book School, 2021; MLIS, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2002 FAST FACT Jackson fashioned a wedding gown from card catalog cards. FOLLOW comics.sdsu.edu Photo courtesy of Pamela Jackson

Comics Evangelist

To say Pamela Jackson is influential in comic studies is an understatement. 

As the archivist for San Diego’s Comic Arts Fest, Jackson curates 100,000 comics and ephemera. That alone would distinguish her, but bigger impact flows from her work at San Diego State University (SDSU). Along with SDSU history professor Elizabeth Pollard, Jackson developed a comics-based curriculum that has students more engaged than ever. “I was an avid reader as a kid, so librarians played a central role in my life,” recalls Jackson. “Later on, I realized I wanted to be an educator, but not in front of a classroom.” Academic librarianship proved a natural fit—as did leveraging comics as a teaching tool, especially in the social justice realm. “Comics have a long history of engaging with social issues,” observes Jackson. “The medium reflects who we are as humans and prompts us to become better people.” 

Yet Jackson saw that K–12 teachers struggled to find age-appropriate comics that could teach about inclusion, disinformation, and bullying. So, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she broke through that barrier in her summer institute, “Using Comics to Teach Social Justice.” Educators from across the country left with lesson plans that met their state standards. 

Jackson crafted the SDSU library exhibit, “Rising Up: Depictions of Social Protest in Comics,” to inspire students to get out and vote. Her mission? To help them develop critical thinking skills that lead to civic engagement, truth-seeking, and compassion.