Role
Dr Carol Adlam is Associate Professor in the Nottingham School of Art & Design. She is a writer and artist specialising in narrative and book illustration (graphic novels, children's books, and reportage) and creative writing (scripts for graphic novels; picturebooks; creative non-fiction). Research specialisms include: narrative illustration; reportage illustration; text and visual adaptation; graphic novels; Russian and East European art histories; critical theory.
Career overview
Her recent publications are:
- The Russian Detective (Penguin Books; Jonathan Cape, 2024). 120pp. graphic novel. ISBN: 9781787334724. Guardian/Observer Graphic Novel of the Month, reviewed here.
- Girton Time (Beam Editions, 2023). 136 pp. art-poetry collaboration. ISBN: 9781739986599
- "The Bobrov Affair: Creating a Graphic Novel Adaptation of a 'Lost' Russian-Empire Crime Novel," in Shannon Wells-Lassagne and Sophie Aymes, eds., Adaptation and Illustration: New Cartographies. Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), pp. 199-216. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32134-4
- (with Claire Whitehead) "Lost detectives: intermedial adaptations of nineteenth-century Russian crime fiction", in Adaptation (Oxford UP, 2023), https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apad033
Previous publications include (with Helen Cross): Ministry of Women (2017), Amy in Love (2016), and The New Wipers Times (2014). Her graphic novel/exhibition Thinking Room (2018) won a World Illustration Award for Research and Knowledge Communication, and previous work (Suzanne's Story; GUTS) was shortlisted for the same award in 2015 and 2016.
She is the Contributing Artist and Creative Director of the University of St Andrews KE&I crime fiction multimedia adaptation project Lost Detectives: Adapting Old Texts for New Media (PI: Dr Claire Whitehead; 2018-), for which she has created 3 spoken-word adaptations (audio drama; libretto), and 2 visual adaptations.
In 2021-2022 Carol Adlam was a Visiting Fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge, and in 2021 she was Writer-in-Residence at the University of St Andrews. Clients include The Guardian, Delayed Gratification: The Slow Journalism Magazine; The National Archives, and the United Nations. She is a member of the Design Research Centre at NTU, and she sits on the Board of Directors of Writing East Midlands. She is represented by The BKS Agency.
Carol Adlam teaches on the MA in Illustration at NTU, and runs occasional workshops on the BA in Illustration and Creative Short Courses. Her work at NTU is informed by her 25+ years' experience working in UK HE, teaching and supervising at all levels, including PhD. She also runs an award-winning creative practice.
She welcomes enquiries about PhD supervision in any of the areas of narrative illustration; reportage illustration; text and visual adaptation; graphic novels; Russian and East European art histories; critical theory.
Research areas
- narrative illustration
- reportage illustration / graphic journalism
- text and visual adaptations
- graphic novel innovation
- Russian and East European art histories
- critical theory
- creative writing for graphic novels
- artist books
Carol welcomes enquiries for PhD supervision in any of the above fields.
Current PhD supervision:
- Madeleine Burt (M4C): 'The Phenomenology of Creativity in the Graphic Novel: A Practical Investigation of Intermedial Visual Storytelling'
External activity
Board of Directors, Writing East Midlands
Contributing Artist, Creative Director: Lost Detectives: Adapting Old Texts for New Media (University of St Andrews)
Director, Carol Adlam Art & Writing
FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)