After completing an undergraduate degree in English with Spanish in 2009, and graduating from MLitt Comics Studies in 2012, Hannah set her sights on a PhD in Spanish Comics.  This topic is the perfect blend of Hannah’s key interests: Languages, Spain and comics.  Hannah’s high proficiency in Spanish has made it possible to carry out her project, as much of the research material and sources are not translated.  Hannah’s PhD builds on the foundations laid by her MLitt dissertation, which covered Spanish Comics in the Twentieth Century and the ways by which these comics reflect the social, political and cultural events of this time.  As Hannah’s PhD developed, her focus has narrowed and her thesis now specifically covers the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939) and the Franco era (1939 – 1975).  Hannah’s research looks at both sides of the Spanish Civil War and investigates the historical and informative value of comics of the Franco era, the use of comics as propaganda and the imposition of censorship of the press. The deduction of whether these comics were subversive and how they may compare or contrast with the officially projected image of Spain during this dictatorship also plays a key part in Hannah’s research.  Hannah’s project will take her to Madrid and Barcelona, where she will conduct interviews with Spanish comics artists from this time in order to gain insight into this difficult period of Spanish history from the perspective of the comics artists who lived through it.

Hannah also has an interest in Korean comics (manwha), and presented a talk on this topic at DOJ-Con 2013 which was well received.  Hannah is currently working on an article on comics of the Spanish Civil War to be published in Studies in Comics.  Hannah won full funding from the AHRC in 2014 and is a member of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities (SGSAH).  Aside from her PhD, Hannah also has an interest in art and illustration and has started her own business named Stereoglamour, with her work inspired by comics, tattoos and the 1950s.  She also specialises in photorealistic commissions in both traditional and digital media.

Twitter: @Hannah_L_Rose
Stereoglamour on Facebook: www.facebook.com/stereoglamour