Re-framing research with Dr Joseph Powell

Joseph, whose research focuses on Rastafari spirituality in the Caribbean and the UK, was selected to be one of six academics matched with editorial cartoonists from around the world as part of The Open University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ Academics and Artists addressing Social Challenges initiative. Joseph worked with Victor Ndula, a Kenyan illustrator and comic artist who won first prize in the United Nations/Ranan Lurie International Political Cartoon Awards 2012, in producing a piece which examined Rastafari responses to Covid-19 in the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.

“I came to be involved in the project after seeing an advert for the competition on the British Association for the Study of Religion webpage,” says Joseph. “I was asked to send in an application that described the research project I could see being represented in cartoon form, which was an article published in the Caribbean Studies Association Journal where I explored Rastafari responses to Covid-19 based on my field in Saint Lucia at the end of 2020.”

The piece that came out of the project examines scepticism of Covid-19 narratives, lockdowns, and vaccines among the Rastafari – scepticism that is often met with criticism from governments and policy-makers around the world without making efforts to understand the contexts of the communities behind it. The cartoon illustrates a worldview born from historic denial of spiritual and bodily autonomy, with Rastafari communities represented by the Lion of Judah serving as a witness to the slave trade, colonialism, and ‘scientific’ experimentation.

Joseph and Victor worked through their ideas for the piece over a course of several weeks, meeting on Teams and sending drafts back and forth. “I described my research to Victor, and I was hugely grateful that he grasped it immediately,” says Joseph. “He described to me that growing up in Nairobi, he spent a lot of time with Rastafari in his neighbourhood, and his understanding of the themes and imagery central to Rastafari unquestionably enriched the project. Given that the hesitation toward mainstream Covid-19 narratives was often historically grounded by my interlocutors, Victor suggested a four-panel piece that would speak to this, with one depicting colonialism, another the slave trade and a third medical experimentation. The fourth would demonstrate contemporary Rastafari responses, that the wounds that these episodes have caused and the desires for bodily autonomy they have generated should be respected. We hit on a final draft a few weeks in, and Victor did the rest.”

Joseph is keen to highlight the benefits of presenting research in an innovative way. 

“I would hope that people take from the piece the sense that academic research, which is often confined to regulated and long form outputs, can be represented in so many different ways that might allow it to speak to different audiences. In just four panels and a short accompanying description, Victor has been able to translate and broaden my research in such a captivating way, so I'd certainly encourage others to explore ways (collaborative or otherwise) of communicating their research.”

Joseph is currently in the process of finalising a place to house the exhibit in Cambridge, so stay tuned for more information!

Below: 'Plandemic', a cartoon by Victor Ndula, illustrating the research of Dr Joseph Powell