Barbara Chamberlin

I have been teaching in HE for over twenty years, and in this time both my teaching and research has naturally evolved. My roots lie in TESOL and language teacher education, and my identity and practices as a teacher have been significantly influenced by this. My MA thesis explored the roles that visuals play in language learning materials, and this initiated a life-long fascination in visual cultures and narratives, and sparked my interest in comics as a form of visual storytelling.

My current teaching now lies in predominantly in creative writing and I lead and teach under and postgraduate modules on the transformative potential of storytelling, genres (with a focus on horror, fantasy and historical fiction) landscape and nature writing and, reflective of my arera of expertise, comics and graphic novels.  I developed the first (and only) comics-specific module in the university, and the success of this has seen students apply comics and comics studies both critically and creatively in their BA and MA dissertations. Alumni of this module have gone on to comics studies PhDs and are now research active in the field. I have recently been instrumental in developing a new Comics and Graphic Novels pathway at the University, one of the very few comics-focused courses in the country.

I am co-founder of the Comics Research Excellence Group and co-curate the Graphic Brighton symposium which brings together comics scholars, creators, publishers and readers and orientates around different themes in each iteration (previous themes include comics and the local community, inclusivity and marginalised voices, war and conflict, music, comics as research method, comics and younger readers, comics and architecture). Graphic Brighton also offers a space for students to present work, give papers and get involved. 

As a frequent walker, I am also interested in ways that walking can be used creatively and critically within my own work, both as a way of connecting story to teller to place and as a vital part of the creative (and thinking) processes. This practice informs my teaching and my own research, and I have published in this area.

I completed my doctorate at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, in 2024 with my practice-informed thesis Haunted Spaces: Visualising the Witch in Expanded Comics, a study that fused witch folklore, walking as creative practice, collaboration and comics studies through the theoretical lens of haunting. I was guided by the excellent supervison of Professor Roger Sabin and Dr Ian Horton, both outstanding scholars in the field of comics studies. This 'apprenticeship of observation' has shown me the importance of a good supervisor, practices I take forward in my own doctoral supervision.  

I have published on themes related to my PhD, am a regular speaker at comics and folk horror conferences, a member of CoRH! (Comics Research Hub) at UAL, have done a number of peer reviews, been invited to do guest lectures at other UK universities, and my recent publication, a co-edited collection (with Julia Round and Kom Kunyosying) on horror and comics with University of Wales Press is due for release Spring 2025. 

I welcome expressions of interest from potential PhD students in and around areas of comics studies, horror, Gothic, landscape and nature writing and visual narratives.

I always welcome conversations about research, and am especially interested in those that adopt and interdisciplinary approach and feature some kind of creative practice within their work. I would be delighted to supervise work around, but by no means limited to: comics studies, folklore and landscape, visual cultures, witch narratives and representations, horror in literature, film and comics and the Gothic.