PHD Decolonising History through Comics-based Research at the University of Portsmouth (part-time 2019-)

Kremena Dimitrova is conducting an interdisciplinary practice-based PhD at the University of Portsmouth which explores new decolonial paths in historical practice. She is probing how comics' cartographies (comics in combination with maps) can engage with limited and marginalised archival material and participate in changing the prevailing representations and commemorations of the history of enslavement. Using both walking and drawing to follow in the footsteps of John King, an enslaved boy who during the eighteenth century ran away from what is now Benjamin Franklin House, London, to Suffolk, Kremena’s research maps the conceptualisation and employment of a comics-based methodology as a contemporary form of decolonial resistance.

ORCHID ID

(2022-) Research Ethics Committee Member – duties include protecting the interests of research participants whilst facilitating ethical research by reviewing research applications and giving an opinion on whether the research is ethical and fair (ensuring that the research proposal itself is necessary, properly designed, supervised, and conducted and that the outcome will answer the research question/s).

CO-EDITED BOOK, BOOK CHAPTER CONTRIBUTION & CHAPTERS' ILLUSTRATIONS

• Dimitrova, Kremena. "Running with the Runaway: Everywhere and Nowhere: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance." In Legacies of Slavery and Contemporary Resistance, by David W. Bulla and Karen E. Bravo and Judith N. Onwubiko and Kremena Dimitrova. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, expected publication 2023.

BOOK CHAPTERS

• Dimitrova, Kremena. "Absented from His Master’s Service: Benjamin Franklin House, Slavery, and Comics." In Comics and Migration: Representation and Other Practices, by Ralf Kauranen and Olly Löytty and Aura Nikkilä and Anna Vuorinne. Routledge, expected publication 2023.

• Dimitrova, Kremena. "Decolonising Benjamin Franklin House through Comics: Reflections and Potential." In

  Propositions for Museum Education: International Art Educators in Conversation, Edited by Anita Sinner and Patricia Osler and Boyd White. Intellect, expected publication 2024.

ZINES' CONTRIBUTIONS

• University of Cambridge, Cambridge / 'Comics and the Global South' Conference (6-7 Jul 2022)

JOINT EXHIBITIONS

• University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth / 'Festival of Research & Innovation' (Nov 2022)
  
• University of Cambridge, Cambridge / 'Comics and the Global South' Conference (6-7 Jul 2022)
• University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth / 'Festival of Doctoral Research' (Jul 2022; Jun 2019)

INVITED TALKS

• Let's deconstruct (just to build again): Decolonising knowledge panel with PGR Group Historical Perspectives (3 Mar 2023), UK/online.

• Bringing Historical Research to Life panel with PGR Group Historical Perspectives (7 Dec 2022), UK/online.

• University of Cambridge, Cambridge / Artists Roundtable Talk 'Comics and the Global South' Conference (6-7 Jul 2022), online.
• Dimitrova, K. (2022, May). Comics' Cartographies: Mapping History and Heritage Inside/Outside the Museum. Talk presented at Carto/graphic Storytelling: Drawing Stories with Maps organised by the Living Maps Network, online.

INVITED ARTICLES

Tomorrowland with Living Maps Network (2023).

Dimitrova, K. (2022, June). Comics, Rhythms and Rhymes: Colonial Borderlands and Decolonial Lines. The Oxford Migration Studies Society, the Migration and Mobility Network and Routed Magazine's special issue dedicated to the Oxford Migration Conference, 2022, 'Contours of Power'.

INVITED BOOK REVIEWS

Dimitrova, K. 2021. Empty spaces: perspectives on emptiness in modern history by Courtney J. Campbell, Allegra Giovine & Jennifer Keating. Contemporary British History.

CONFERENCES

Dimitrova, K. (2023, July). John King and the Aesthetics of Historying Decolonial Resistance through Comics. Paper to be presented at the Storytelling Conference organised by the University of Suffolk, UK.

Dimitrova, K. (2023, June). John King and the Aesthetics of Historying Decolonial Resistance through Comics. Paper to be presented at Comics and/as Resistance Conference organised by Oxford Comics Network TORCH, University of Oxford, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2023, June). The Aesthetics of Historying: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance. Paper to be presented at HistorioGRAPHICS: Framing the Past in Comics Conference organised by the Bavarian American Academy and the German Society for Comics Studies, Amerikahaus Munich.

Dimitrova, K. (2022). Absented from His Master’s Service: Comics, Colonialism and Benjamin Franklin House. Paper to be presented at World in a (Historic) House: Global Connections and Collections organised by the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2022, September). Running with the Runaway Everywhere and Nowhere: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance. Paper presented at HISTORY IN COMICS CONFERENCE and WORKSHOP: Representing History in/as Comics: Ethics and Choice, organised by Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic/online. 

Dimitrova, K. (2022, July). Running with the Runaway Everywhere and Nowhere: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance. Paper presented at the Social History Society's Annual Conference - Environment, Spaces & Places Session, University of Lancaster, UK. 

Dimitrova, K. (2022, June - July). Running with the Runaway Everywhere and Nowhere: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance. Paper presented at Comics and Conscience: Ethics, Morality, and Great Responsibility organised by International Conference of Graphic Novels and Comics hosted by Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) in association with Studies in Comics (Intellect) and the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Routledge), UK/online. 

Dimitrova, K. (2022, May). Slavery in Flux: Comics Cartographies and the (In)visible Enslaved Other. Paper presented at Exploring the In-Betweens: Comics in Flux organised by the The Graduate Comics Organisation at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2022, May). Running with the Runaway Everywhere and Nowhere: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance. Paper presented at the Annual Oxford Migration Conference: Contours of Power: Exploring Power and Migration (Art and Resistance Panel) organised by the University of Oxford, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2022, April). Running with the Runaway Everywhere and Nowhere: Comics-based Research as a Contemporary Form of Decolonial Resistance. Paper presented at Revisioning the Past: The Artist/Designer as Historian organised by the University of Portsmouth and the University of Bristol, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2021, July). Absented from His Master’s Service: Envisaging Runaway Slave Advertisements through Non-narrative Comics Poetry. Paper presented at the 5th Global Meeting: Slavery Past, Present and Future organised by the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2021, June). Absented from His Master’s Service: Envisaging Runaway Slave Advertisements through Non-narrative Comics. Paper presented at Seeds, Roots and Branches organised by the University of Portsmouth, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2021, June). Absented from His Master’s Service: Envisaging Runaway Slave Advertisements through Non-narrative Comics Poetry. Paper presented at "Blood on the Leaves/And Blood at the Roots": Reconsidering Forms of Enslavement and Subjection across Disciplines organised by the University of Warwick, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2021, June). Absented from His Master’s Service: Envisaging Runaway Slave Advertisements through Non-narrative Comics Poetry. Paper presented at EMREM’s 10th Annual Symposium 'Forging and Forgetting: The (Re)writing of History, Community and Memory' organised by the University of Birmingham, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2021, April). Absented from His Master’s Service: Envisaging Runaway Slave Advertisements through Non-narrative Comics Poetry. Paper presented at the Somewhere in Between: Borders and Borderlands Conference organised by the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, UK/online.

Dimitrova, K. (2020, November). Visualising Absence: The Cartographic Novel as an Innovative Form of Historiography. Paper presented at the Narratives of Displacement International Conference organised by the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in collaboration with The British and Comparative Cultural Studies Research Group (BRICCS), University of the Balearic Islands, Spain. 

Dimitrova, K. (2020, September). Visualising Colonial Absences: The Cartographic Novel as an Innovative Form of Historiography. Paper presented at the University of Portsmouth Digital Postgraduate Presentations Programme DiPP, UK.

Dimitrova, K. (2020, June). The Cartographic Novel as an Innovative Form of Historiography. Paper presented at the Social History Society's Online Events - Environment, Spaces & Places Session, UK. 

Dimitrova, K. (2020, June). The Cartographic Novel as an Innovative Form of Historiography. Paper presented at the MAPPING - UNCHARTED TERRITORY organised by the University of Portsmouth, UK/online. 

Dimitrova, K. (2019, July). Reimagining History: Graphic Novels and the Museum. Paper presented at the Visualising the Past Symposium. Portsmouth, UK.

Dimitrova, K. (2019, June). Conference Panel Chair of Assembling Storyworlds. Paper presented at the Joint International Conference of Graphic Novels, Comics and Bandes Dessinées, Manchester, UK.

Dimitrova, K. (2017, March). Teaching Art and Design in an Inclusive Classroom: Adapting the Curriculum. Paper presented as part of Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Symposium. London, UK.