Lauren Chivington (they/them) is a Ph.D. student in The Ohio State University’s English department, focusing on comics studies, new media, and pop culture. As an adjunct professor, Lauren instructs English composition to first-year college students of all ages. Lauren first fell in love with comics studies while at OSU. They wrote their undergraduate thesis on Holocaust narratives and the potential of the comics medium to mediate intergenerational trauma and educate future generations, and published it in the International Journal Of Comic Art in 2018. While attending the University of Chicago, Lauren wrote their master’s thesis (published in ImageTexT in 2021) under the guidance of W..J.T Mitchell on the empty speech balloon and the many ways it is both seen and overlooked, how it takes on a life of its own while determining the subjectivity around it, and how it epitomizes the comic medium even as it pulls on its seams. Lauren is currently interested in autobiography, trauma studies, disability studies, 20th + 21st-century literature, digital media, and graphic medicine.
Image caption: Pictured is a person, Lauren Chivington, in a cap and gown in front of a blue wall.
Education
Ph.D.
The Ohio State University.
In Progress.
Master’s
The University of Chicago.
2020.
Bachelor’s
The Ohio State University.
2018.
Conferences
International Amsterdam Comics Conference
“Isolation, Arts, Engagement”
Graphic Medicine Annual Conference: (Re)Connecting
“Creating Connection: Using Graphic Medicine For Continual Healing”
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2021
“Exploring Queer Expression in
Comics Studies: The Graduate
Student Experience“
Comics Studies Society CSS2021: Re/Building Community
“Graduate Student Caucus on Interdisciplinarity”
Publications
Signifying Silence: The Empty Speech Balloon.
ImageTexT.
2021.
The Girl, the Man, and the Maus: Holocaust Narratives in Controversial Media.
International Journal of Comic Art. (IJOCA)
2018.
Talks
Ted X OSU Salon:
Between the Lines
“Invisible Disabilities On and Off the Comics Page”
The Ohio State University, 2022.
Organizations
Advisory Board Graduate Representative
The Ohio State University
2023
Disability Studies Graduate Student
Association
(DSGSA)
President
The Ohio State University
2022-2023
Humanities and Cognitive Sciences High School Summer Institute
Assistant Director
The Ohio State University
2022
Lauren Chivington 