^{Still Image from Empathetic Ethics (Thomas and Rumsby 2020)}

At the end of March a special issue of TRAJECTORIA, "Ethno-graphic Collaborations: Crossing Borders with Multimodal Illustration", was published.

This special issue presents and discusses four different modes of anthropological collaboration through illustration. There are two artist-researcher collaborations, and two other pieces that expand the meaning and remit of collaboration through graphic ethnography across space and time. The subsequent video discussions consider the potential impact of interdisciplinary collaboration on the way anthropology is conceptualised as a discipline, and on the way it affects the world. The special theme presents examples of what collaborative graphic anthropology can look like, inviting the viewer to think about the kinds of analysis that can emerge from such visual experiments and dialogues, and encouraging them to try their own graphic explorations and to join the conversation.

In a piece titled "Waters of Death and Life: The Evolution of an 'Ethno-Graphic'" by Dr Charlie Rumsby (a Visiting Research Fellow in the GSD Department) and Ben Thomas (an independent digital illustrator) we see an academic thesis in the process of being turned into an ethno-graphic novel. The illustrations place the viewer directly within highly emotive scenes, generating empathy for the marginalised populations being studied, while maintaining the anonymity of research participants. Such visceral work can have great benefit in advocacy and can help to expand the reach of anthropology beyond its disciplinary borders.

"I am really excited to share a special issue recently published with TRAJECTORIA. During a time when anthropologists are discussing the value of multimodal outputs and whether they should be valued similarly to text-based journal articles, it is exciting to see journals like TRAJECTORIA embrace and promote open access multimodal research." Dr Charlie Rumsby