Dr Nina Mickwitz

Biography

Senior Lecturer in Contextual and Theoretical Studies at University of the Arts London (UAL) and founding member of the Comics Research Hub@ UAL.

My current research is about storytelling (narrative and representation) as a tool for social (in)justice agendas across diverse genres of graphic storytelling. This involves attention to unstable yet important categorisation (both genre and factual/fiction delineations). Quotidian and institutional contexts through which such narratives are circulated also contribute to how they generate meanings. I have written about comics and graphic novels doing documentary work, on graphic narrative representations of refugees and as a tool for advocacy, and about transformative imaginaries in speculative fiction and fantasy comics.

I am also interested in questions of cultural value, and in the transnational, entrepreneurial and precarious networks of creative producers.

My contribution to academic communities includes regular peer reviews for academic journals and publishers and contributions to conferences in the UK and internationally. I have also given talks at public events, including the Nordic Comics Now! Event at the British Library in 2020.