An Interview With Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom: Teaching and Learning Difficult Knowledge With Comics and Graphic Novels

Introduction I n my earlier commentary, “Anti-Asian Racism in the Time of COVID-19: The Work of Lisa Wool-Rim ( ) Sj€ oblom” (Bae, 2022), I engaged with Sj€ oblom’s recent work—in particular, her graphic novel, Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption (Sj€ oblom, 2016/2019). Two topics were at the center of my discussion: (1) the ways Sj€ oblom’s work expresses concerns around the increasing overt and covert everyday racism that Asians have experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Western countries; and (2) the pedagogical capacity of Sj€ oblom’s work in developing antiracist art education. In conversation with Robert W. Sweeny, the senior editor of Studies in Art Education, and Laura Traf ı-Prats, the commentary editor, we considered expanding on my commentary by interviewing Lisa Wool-Rim Sj€ oblom and exploring ways of using the interview to continue considering the pedagogic role of graphic novels in grappling with racism. In designing the interview, I sent a series of questions to her by email over the course of the fall and winter of 2021, and her answers are transcribed below. After we emailed, we followed up with a