Professional Summary
Elizabeth Allyn Woock is an assistant professor at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic, in the Department of English and American Studies. As a researcher, illustrator, and public science communicator, she combines her training in the arts with the fields of cultural analysis, narratology, and history to explore new directions in the study of popular media. In addition to teaching and experimenting with arts-based research methodologies, she organizes interdisciplinary and international opportunities for collaboration and seeks to build bridges across specializations.
Education
2020 Ph.D. from the Department of British and American Studies, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic
2013 Double Master from the Departments of History and Latin Philology, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic
2008 B.A. in Medieval Studies, Smith College, Massachusetts, USA
Current position
2019–present Assistant Professor Department of British and American Studies, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic
Selected recent scholarly work
Medieval Space in Comics: Affect and Ideology, (Palgrave Macmillan: 2024).
This single-authored monograph includes an author-illustrated methods section and conclusion, visually communicating complex theories of space and place in graphic narrative and medieval studies historiography.
This single-authored article presents an outline for more ethical peer review practices evaluating the visual plane of research comics. The results also included a rubric to act as an easy-to-use tool for both peer reviewers and readers of academic comics, an innovative solution to fill the gap of guidelines for peer reviewing research comics.
This illustrated, co-authored article examines the ethics behind illustration the journalist within a report or journalistic comics as a question of positionality and narrative, and presents options for more ethical journalistic comics practices.
This single-authored article examines the ethics behind illustration of the research within an academic or didactic comics as a question of positionality and narrative and outlines best practice for the visualisation of the author in research comics.
These illustrated, single-authored field notes ask provocative questions about the embodiment of an author or researcher as a character in research comics.
Conferences organized
“Comprehending Comics” Conference at Palacky University, 2024.
Organized with Amy Matthewson (University of Birmingham), this conference is dedicated to the methodological concerns of applying image-based research to the social sciences and history.
“History in Comics: Choice and Ethics,” Conference at Palacký University, 2022.
This international conference hosted over 40 participants from four continents to engage on the topic of the representation of history in comics, and the ethical implication of those choices, as the first conference of its kind. Co-organized with Barbara Postema, Eszter Szép, Dragoş Manea, Mihaela Precup, and Johannes Babbe.
Recent presentations at international conferences
Better Teaching through Comics. 2023. Conference Paper. Better Living Through Comics The 2023 Joint Conference of the International Graphic Novel & Comics and the International Bande Dessinée Society. Cambridge, UK. 03.–07.07.2023
Medieval warfare as aesthetic hyperobject in comics. 2023. Historiographics: Framing the Past in Comics International Conference. Munich, Germany. 15.–16.06.2023.
Peer review for research comics. 2023. 9th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference. Trento, Italy. 07. –10.06. 2023.
The Planet of Knights on Shining Space Dragons. 2023. The Medieval in Cyberspace. Ohio, USA. 26. –28.10. 2023.
Recent projects
2020–2023 Erasmus+ Key Action, Blended Intensive Program: “History in Comics.”
I organized a team of experts in the field: Barbara Postema, Eszter Szép, Dragoş Manea, Mihaela Precup, and Johannes Babbe. The project held three informal colloquia, one international conference, one week-long workshop for Mgr. and Ph.D. students with partner universities Comenius University Bratislava and University of Graz.
2020–2021 IGA Grant project, “American comics studies – ethics and embodiment.”
This domestic grant project collaborated with a graduate student to create three academic articles and two conference papers at the IGNCC.
Positions and roles
Assistant editor at the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (2024-present)
Two terms in the Research Ethics Committee (2021–present)
International liaison for the executive board of the International Society for the Study of Medievalism (2024–present)
International Comparative Literature Association, Research Committee for Comics Studies, member. (2025-present)
Vice-chairwoman of the faculty Senate (2020–2023)