Store front of the two-story comics shop, Continuarà Còmics, in Barcelona.
“My doctoral research investigates the transformations of comics art within the 21st century and its emergence in new artistic environments. I will visit Madrid, the 'art capital' of Spain, and Barcelona, the nation’s 'city of comics'.”
Upon receiving the 2023 Dean of Arts Graduate Student Research Award to conduct research in Spain, Jennifer Nagtegaal, PhD student of Hispanic Studies, details her research plans abroad.
Research project:
My doctoral research project—with a working title of “Comics, Art, Interaction: Exploring an Avant-garde in Spain and Latin America and Beyond”—investigates the transformations of comics art within the 21st century and its emergence in new artistic environments, some of which have historically excluded the art form. I examine the hybridization of comics with music (studio albums), with opera and theatre, with ceramics art, with the museistic space and even with the culinary arts. What I want to prove with my dissertation is that these aesthetic experiments with comics are, in fact, a reflection on art in the 21st century.
Research trip to Spain:
Since I will already be abroad this summer taking part in the 21st congress of the International Association of Hispanists in Neuchâtel, Switzerland (July 10-15, 2023), I wanted to take advantage of the close proximity to Spain. There, I will visit key cultural institutions and other sites that will inform my dissertation project. The Dean of Arts Graduate Student Research Award will help offset the costs of travel related to this trip, such as travel by train from Switzerland, local accommodations, entrance to museums and the purchase of books and other materials more readily available in Spain.
I will visit Madrid, the capital city and “art capital” of Spain, and Barcelona, the nation’s “comics capital” or “city of comics.” In Madrid, time will be spent visiting the Biblioteca Nacional de España, which holds an impressive collection of nearly 20,000 comics, both single authored and serialized. I also plan to visit the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Espacio Fundación Telefónica, both of which will inform my dissertation.
Also of great interest in Madrid is the experimental comics art eatery, Estando Contigo, which I plan to write about in the conclusion of my dissertation, or as a Coda, which I would hope to develop further into a publishable article exploring the interaction between comics art and the culinary arts, and the immersive experience of eating at this locale.
In Barcelona, I will be staying in the Gothic Quarter, which puts me in close proximity to the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as renowned comics publishing houses and retailers key in the promotion and diffusion of comics art, such as Norma Comics and Continuarà Còmics.
