Teaching word-image relationships

Tuesday 25th January 2022 | 11:00-12:30 | Online (zoom)

Bethan Stevens, Sophie Herxheimer and Emily Haworth-Booth

Moderated by Aanchal Vij

Bethan Stevens, Sophie Herxheimer and Emily Haworth-Booth discuss the teaching of word-image relationships in universities and at training institutions, and developing a cross- and inter-disciplinary practice.

Bethan Stevens is a Senior Lecturer in English and Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex. She has a broad interest in the way literary texts relate to printmaking and book illustration from the late eighteenth century to the present day. She is fascinated by ekphrasis, or writing about art, and approaches these subjects through an interdisciplinary method, working in literary criticism, art history and creative writing. A major current creative-critical project is a collaboration with the Prints and Drawings Department of the British Museum, Wood Engraving and the Future of Word-Image Narratives: The Dalziel Family, 1839-1893, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Other research projects include: the work of 19th-century gothic/scientific illustrator Jemima Blackburn; the environmental impact of the boom in illustration in the Victorian period; and representations of care work in 19th-century illustrated novels. Work in progress includes a monograph on the Dalziels, a graphic novel and a display in the British Museum (spring 2022).

Sophie Herxheimer is an artist and poet. She’s held residencies for The Museum of Liverpool and Transport for London among others. Her work has been shown at her local allotments, Tate Modern and on a giant mural along the sea-front at Margate. She made a 300 metre tablecloth for the Thames Festival, a life size concrete poem in the shape of Mrs Beeton to stand next to her grave, and a pie on the lawn of an old people’s home big enough for seven drama students to jump out of, singing. Her collection Velkom to Inklandt (Short Books, 2017) was a Poetry Book of the Month in the Observer and a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her book 60 Lovers to Make and Do, (Henningham Family Press, 2019) was a TLS Book of the Year. She has an ongoing project where she collects and draws stories live with members of the public. Her new collection is INDEX (zimZalla, 2021), a box of 78 collage poems, published in a box as a pack of prophetic cards.

Emily Haworth-Booth is an author-illustrator who teaches courses on comics and graphic novels at the Royal Drawing School and has run workshops for adults and children at venues including the Hay Festival, Saatchi Gallery, St George's Hospital, Kentish Town City Farm, Momentum Project Newham and the National Art & Design Saturday Club at Kingston University. Emily won the Observer/Comica/Jonathan Cape Graphic Short Story Prize in 2013 and was runner-up of the same prize in 2008. Emily's most recent publication is Protest! How people have come together to change the world, an illustrated children's book published by Pavilion.

Aanchal Vij is currently a doctoral researcher at the School of Media, Arts, and Humanities at Sussex. She works on 19th and 20th-century comic books and novels to explore the relationship between American history, nostalgia, and disability studies. She also recently completed a CHASE placement with Bloomsbury Academic where she worked as an Editorial Intern. She is fascinated by visual narratives and their ability to transcend linguistic barriers to facilitate meaning-making.

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TCW |Teaching word-image relationships