Teaching & Research | kremenadimitrova.com

TEACHING FELLOW / LECTURER

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries

School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 4 BA Graphic Design Introduction to Visual Culture module delivery (Nov 2023 - May 2024)
School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 4 BA Fashion and Textile Design Introduction to Visual Culture module delivery and assessment (Nov 2023 - May 2024)
School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 6 Visual Culture Research Practice Thesis supervision and assessment (Illustration, Graphic Design, Photography) (Oct 2023 - Jan 2024)
School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 4 BA Fashion and Textile Design Introduction to Visual Culture module delivery and assessment (Nov 2022 - May 2023)
School of Architecture / Level 5 BA Interior Architecture and Design Body and Interior Space module delivery, assessment, and moderation (Oct 2022 - Jan 2023)
School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 6 Visual Culture Thesis supervision, assessment, and moderation (Illustration, Graphic Design, Photography) (Oct 2022 - Jan 2023)
School of Architecture / Level 5 BA Interior Architecture and Design Visual Culture: Visions of the Body module delivery and assessment (Oct 2021 - Jan 2022)
School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 6 Visual Culture Research Practice Thesis supervision and assessment (Illustration, Graphic Design, Photography) (Oct 2021 - Jan 2022)
School of Art, Design, and Performance / Level 4 BA Photography Introduction to Visual Culture module delivery and assessment (Jan 2021 - Apr 2021)

Middlesex University

Sorrell Foundation’s National Art and Design Saturday Club (NADSC) (Nov 2013-)
Intensive Foundation in Art and Design (Jun 2013 - Sep 2018)
Summer School (Jun 2015 - Aug 2016)

INVITED PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE TALKS, LECTURES & WORKSHOPS

Palacký University Olomouc - 'Visualising History through Comics-as-maps-as-poetry' talk and workshop (11-12 Oct 2024)

City, University of London - 'Mapping the Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure through Comics' workshop (14 Jun 2024)

Buckinghamshire Culture - Creative Networking Meeting Keynote (30 Jan 2024)

Europa-Universität Flensburg - 'HistorioGRAPHICS: Perspectives from a Creator of History Comics' Lecture for MA Students (6 Jun 2023)

No. 6 Cinema - 'Sin City: When Comics and Film Meet' Talk and Screening as Part of 'Drawn to the Big Screen' Season (8 Sep 2022)

University of Portsmouth

BA - Lecture 'Visualising History: Theory to/in Practice and Practice in/to Theory' (16 Apr 2024)
MA Architecture - talk 'Hidden Histories' (2 Nov 2022; 10 Nov 2021)
BA - Lecture 'Thinking through the Body (in space)' (14 Oct 2021)
BA Photography - talk 'Working as a Creative Practitioner / Freelancer in the Creative, Cultural and Heritage Industries (30 Apr 2021)
BA - Lecture 'Visualising History' (20 Apr 2021)
BA Illustration - Talk 'Reimagining History: Graphic Novels, Archives, and Heritage' (Research and Narrative) and Workshop 'Minibeasts, Mark-making and Comics' (15 Mar 2021)
BA Illustration - talk and workshop 'History-telling through Comics' (9 Mar 2019)

Historic England Development Day - talk with East Street Arts as part of High Street Heritage Action Zone Programme (Untold Stories of Burmantofts and New Briggate) (28 Jan 2021)

University of East London

BA Illustration students - Talk as part of 'Professional Practice Lecture Series' (13 Nov 2018)

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS & PUBLIC EVENTS

Being Human Festival with Dr Grazia Caleo, The Secret of the Bush: A Story of Healing and Repair - creative workshops - Topolski Studio, 8 Nov 2024 (adults); Enfield Town Library, 10 Nov 2024 (families and children).
Benjamin Franklin House, creative PhD research summer workshops for young people, Untold Stories – Visualising History

International Day of the World's Indigenous People Thursday 8 Aug 2024 at 1-3pm

Friday 9 Aug 2024 at 10am-12pm

International Day for people from African Descent Friday 23 Aug 2024 at 10am-12pm

Friday 30 Aug 2024 at 10am-12pm

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition Saturday 31 August 2024 at 10am-12pm

Visualising History: Refugee Week – “Our Home” Family Event/Workshop (22 Jun 2024)
The British Museum, London, Outreach Community Programme with Claremont Project - co-creation of a trail - creative collaborative workshop inspired by The British Museum's collections (24 Jun 2024)
Kingswood House, Open Heritage Day - Oral History Gathering Workshop (16 Jun 2024)
MAST Mayflower Studios Theatre, Southampton, Family Fun Day workshop ‘My Paper Boat’ sea themed painting on glass (1 Jun 2024)
River/Flow/Connect: Our Natural Blue Spaces Charter with Bedford Creative Arts in collaboration with the Canals and River Trust, The Greensand Trust, Central Bedfordshire Council’s Culture and Countryside Teams and primary and secondary schools in Central Bedfordshire (May - Jun 2024)
The British Museum, London, Outreach Community Programme with Burcham Street Community Centre (with crossover members of The Brownfield's Men's Cabin) - botanical illustration, drawing, collage workshops inspired by Mary Delany and Maria Sibylla Merian (11 and 18 May 2024)
World Conference on Statelessness, Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 'Using Art and Graphic Comics for Advocacy on Statelessness' workshop co-facilitators: Kremena Dimitrova, Humera Iqbal, Zahra Marwan, Diwakar Chhetri (26 - 29 Feb 2024).
Being Human Festival, British Film Institute, London / Partition of Identity, the Pakistani Bengali Story with Dr Humera Iqbal (8 Nov 2023)
No Limits Young Carers, Southampton, Presents and Post creative workshop in collaboration with MAST Mayflower Studios Theatre (27 Oct 2023)
Weston Park Primary School, Southampton, WonderTALES and WinterLANDS creative workshop in collaboration with MAST Mayflower Studios Theatre (18 Oct 2023)
Kenton Learning Centre (Learn Harrow), CPD creative workshop for teachers (Sep 2023)
The Wolseley Bridge Centre, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Wildchild Festival creative workshop for families and children (Aug 2023)
Kenton Learning Centre (Learn Harrow), Creative workshop for children at BNO event (Jul 2023)
Wallingford Co-Creation Heritage Workshops with an Art Twist with the Wigod Way Family Centre, Wallingford School, Waterside Court Care Home and an open workshop to the public during the Celebration of the Curfew Bell event (13 - 15 Jul 2023)
MAST Mayflower Studios Theatre - LGBTQ Pride Co-creation Workshop Series (Jun - Jul 2023)
The Brownfield's Men's Cabin, Poplar, London (with the British Museum) - Illustrating Recipes (31 May 2023)
Headstone Manor and Museum, Mindful Sketching community workshops (16, 25 May; 20, 27 Jun; 18, 25 Jul 2023)
Xenia: Hackney Museum, Hackney Archives, Newington Green Meeting House, PEER UK - Trailblazing Women creative open day events and mapmaking/storytelling community workshops (25 Mar - Jul 2023)
Victoria Primary Academy, Victoria Centre, Wellingborough Library, Swansgate Shopping Centre - Wellingborough Stories creative community artmaking/storytelling workshops (22 - 24 Mar and 15 Apr 2023)
Driffield Junior School, Driffield, creative workshops: Mapping the Wildlife Travellers and Settlers on the Yorkshire Wolds through Comics (12, 13 Jan 2023)
Kings Mill Special School, Driffield, creative workshop: Mapping the Wildlife Travellers and Settlers on the Yorkshire Wolds through Comics (11 Jan 2023)
Wendover Community Library, Meet the Artist Talk and Workshop, Wendover Through Time: An Open Heritage Day with an Art Twist (10 Dec 2022; 3 Apr 2023)
Barbican Centre, Family Film Club as part of Family Film Week - creative workshop for children and families to support storytelling sessions by Wendy Shearer Storyteller (29 Oct 2022)
Redbridge Primary School, Southampton - creative workshop making a 2-metre white rabbit installation as part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland production for MAST Mayflower Studios Theatre (21 Oct 2022)
Tyneham Village, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, Dorset Diocese, Dorset Museums and Historic England (Culture and Heritage Hub Seed Funding - Higher Education Innovation Fund and Participatory Research Fund) - Tyneham Unravelled: Establishing and Connecting the Communities of Tyneham Village (22 - 24 Jul 2022)
Milton Keynes Youth Cabinet (Homelessness Action Group) - 'Typography & Symbolism' digital and face-to-face workshops for young people (21 Dec 2021 and 11 Jan 2022)
Museum of the Home - 'Illustrate a Hanukkah lamp with Kremena Dimitrova' Family workshop - Winter Festival Hanukkah Celebration Day (28 Nov 2021)
Green Close, Rural & Social Development through the Arts - 'Mapping Kirkby Lonsdale’s Heritage' digital and face-to-face community workshops as part of Phoenix Rising Wellbeing Programme (May - Aug 2021)
University of Manchester's Centre for Jewish Studies and The John Rylands Library - 'Deconstruct/Reconstruct: Turning a 14C Jewish Manuscript into 21C Comic Strips' online talk and workshop as part of '50 Jewish Objects Project' (2021)
MIDAYE Somali Development Network - 'Storytelling and Comic Strips' digital workshops for girls aged 15-20 (7, 14, 21 Dec 2020)
Green Close, Rural & Social Development through the Arts, Lancashire - 'Comics & Personal Well-being' digital workshops for women over eighteen on the theme of Stress & Anxiety as part of The Phoenix Art & Health Project in partnership with Lancashire and South Cumbria (NHS) Foundation Trust, LSCFT Recovery College (Arts Council England Emergency Funding) (Oct 2020)
Chester Festival of Hope - online workshop 'Understanding Comics: Starting Your Comic Strip' in collaboration with West Cheshire Museums, Hope Streets and Curious Minds (National Lottery Heritage Funded) (5 Sep 2020)
National Memorial Arboretum - VJ Day Digital Illustration workshops (22, 23, 27 Jun 2020)
Portsmouth Comic Con International Festival of Comics - Storytelling, sequential drawing and character development public workshops for people of all ages (5 May 2019)
L'Ecole de Battersea - Year 4 Primary School Monoprinting workshops (29 Mar 2019)
The Art Trolley - Visual Storytelling workshop for adults - The 6 Word Novel (16 Mar 2019)
The Art Trolley - Visual storytelling workshop for children - Comics (23 Feb 2019)
Write & Shine - 'Word & Image' workshop at Waterstones - Tottenham Court Road (24 Jan 2019)
Benjamin Franklin House - Illustration/collage workshops for families and children (National Lottery Heritage Funded) (11 Jul; 22 Aug 2017)
The Bromfords School and Sixth Form College - Illustration workshops - The 6 Word Novel (1 Jul 2015)
Jewish Museum - Illustration workshops for children under 10s inspired by the exhibition 'Tiger, Mog and Pink Rabbit: A Judith Kerr Retrospective' (1 Aug 2015)
Bishop's Stortford Museum - Illustration/graphic narrative talk for secondary school children (6 Oct 2014)

PHD Visualising History at the University of Portsmouth (part-time 2019-)

Kremena Dimitrova is conducting a practice-based PhD which conceptualises and explores comics-as-maps-as-poetry as a comics-based research methodology for visualising histories of migration.

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

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

The serious business of comics in conversation with Dr Olly Gruner and Dr Tom Sykes (Portsmouth Comic Con International Festival of Comics (12 May 2024)

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

Dimitrova, K. (2023). Tomorrowland. Living Maps Network.

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 INTERVIEWS

Dimitrova, K. (2024). Paper Trails. The Museum of British Colonialism.

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. (2024, November). Runaway Poetics: Mapping Histories of Migration through Comics and Co-creation from a Child's Perspective (Poster Presentation), 14th Annual International Illustration Research Symposium, University of the Arts London, UK.

Dimitrova, K., and Caleo, G. (2024, November). The Secret of the Bush: A Story of Healing and Repair, Paper to be presented at the International Conference Kids and Adults Allowed: Children’s Literature for Everyone, Taiwan Children’s Literature Research Association (TCLRA), Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Dimitrova, K. (2024, September). Runaway Poetics: Mapping Histories of Migration through Comics, Paper to be presented at Comprehending Comics: Exploring Methodologies and Approaches to Comic Studies in History and the Social Sciences, Comics Lab, Palacky University, Czech Republic.

Dimitrova, K. (2024, July). River, Flow, Connect: Our Natural Blue Spaces Charter, Paper presented as part of Children, Young People and Unequal Climate Futures: Conversations across Contexts with Catherine Walker, Katie Parsons, Florence Halstead, Matluba Khanat, Children and Childhoods, University of Suffolk, UK.

Dimitrova, K. (2024, April). Think in Your Heart, Think... Machar Colony, Statelessness and the Search for Belonging, Paper presented at Ink and Imagination: Exploring Children's Comics, Graduate Comics Organization at the University of Florida, USA.

Dimitrova, K., Iqbal, H., Malik, A., Hasan, T. (2024, February). Partition of Identity: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studying Statelessness. Paper presented at 2024 World Conference on Statelessness: Solidarity, Knowledge, Change organised by Taylor's University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Dimitrova, K. (2023, July). John King and the Aesthetics of Historying Decolonial Resistance through Comics. Paper 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 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 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, 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.