We’re thrilled to share some great news for the Breaking Walls team: we’ve received funding from the Academy of Sciences and Humanities Hamburg for an in-person workshop in Hamburg from 20–23 November.

What we will do

Over four days, our team—Carolin Gluchowski (Hamburg), Marlon Bäumer (Hamburg), Marlene Schilling (Oxford), and Sigrid Körner (London)—will dive into the creative and scholarly potential of comics as tools for academic research – meeting for the first time in person! The workshop will focus on three strands:

• Method labs: Exploring how sequential art can model complex arguments, visualize sources, and make research processes transparent.
• Story development: Building a shared storyboard for our forthcoming graphic novel, including research arcs, character perspectives, and visual dramaturgy.
• Field excursion: A visit to the women’s convents in Lüneburg to ground our narrative choices in site-specific histories and material culture.

Why comics?

“Breaking Walls” experiments with formats that cross disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Comics—through the interplay of image, text, and layout—offer a rigorous yet accessible way to present evidence, trace debates, and engage new audiences without oversimplifying.

Gratidude

This workshop is made possible thanks to the generous support of the University of Hamburg and the Academy of Sciences and Humanities Hamburg. We’re deeply grateful for their commitment to innovative research and to fostering collaboration across fields.

Stay tuned—we’ll share insights from the workshop and a sneak peek of the storyboard on our website after 23 November.