Frederik Kohlert
frederik kohlert

Dr Frederik Kohlert

Lecturer

Biography

Originally from Denmark, Frederik joined Napier after many years in England, Canada, and the US. His research focuses on issues of representation in visual and literary culture, with an emphasis on comics and graphic novels.

He is the author of several articles about comics on topics including trauma, anarchism, and the representation of racial whiteness. His book Serial Selves: Identity and Representation in Autobiographical Comics was published by Rutgers University Press in 2019. With a focus on the comics form’s ability to produce alternative and challenging autobiographical narratives, the book investigates the work of artists writing from perspectives of marginality including gender, sexuality, disability, and race, as well as trauma.

In addition, he is the editor of Chicago: A Literary History from Cambridge University Press and the author of The Chicago Literary Experience: Writing the City, 1893-1953. 

Frederik also edits the two companion book series Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics Studies and Routledge Research in Gender, Sexuality, and Comics Studies, both of which are currently accepting proposals.

His various research activities has been supported by the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC), the Danish Council for Independent Research | Humanities, and the US Fulbright Program, among others.

Besides comics, graphic novels, and the cultural history of Chicago, Frederik's teaching and research interests include visual culture, film studies, genre fiction, autobiography, and various pop culture-related topics. He welcomes postgraduate students in all of these areas.

News

Events

Esteem

Editorial Activity

  • Series editor, Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Comics
  • Series editor, Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics
  • Editor, special issue of SubStance: “Rebel Lines: Comics and the Anarchist Imagination”
  • Editorial board member, Studies in Comics

 

Grant Reviewer

  • Austrian Science Fund

 

Invited Speaker

  • “From Minicomics to Graphic Novels: The Case of Chester Brown.” Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge
  • “Drawing in the Margins: Visibility and Whiteness in Autobiographical Comics.” Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam
  • "'A Grotesque, Incurable Disease': Whiteness as Illness in Gabby Schulz’s Sick." School of Languages and Cultures and the United States Study Centre, University of Sydney
  • “Comics and Identity.” Norwich University of the Arts
  • “Of Mice and Krazy Kats: The History and Art of American Comics.” Second Air Division Memorial Library, Norwich
  • “Staring at Comics: Disability and Visuality in Al Davison’s The Spiral Cage.” The World Art Research Seminar, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
  • “What Are Comics and How Do They Work? The History and Form of Comics and Graphic Novels.” Norwich University of the Arts
  • “Rebel Lines: Anarchism in American Underground Comics.” American Studies Research Seminar, University of Kent
  • “Comics and the Anarchist Imagination.” The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, University of Oxford
  • “Disability and Representation in Autobiographical Comics.” Transnational Comics Studies Workshop and the Initiative on Disability Studies, University of Michigan

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy

 

Reviewing

  • Adaptation Studies
  • Bloomsbury
  • Horror Studies
  • Palgrave Macmillan
  • University Press of Mississippi
  • Routledge
  • European Comic Art

 

Date


30 results

Review of: Autobiographical Comics, by Andrew J. Kunka

Journal Article
Køhlert, F. B. (2019)
Review of: Autobiographical Comics, by Andrew J. Kunka. Journal of American Studies, 53(4), Article e64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875819001385

"At This Point I Become Real": Experimental Autobiography in Julie Doucet and Michel Gondry’s Comics/Video Hybrid My New New York Diary

Book Chapter
Køhlert, F. B. (2019)
"At This Point I Become Real": Experimental Autobiography in Julie Doucet and Michel Gondry’s Comics/Video Hybrid My New New York Diary. In The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell: A Place Inside Yourself (145-163). University Press of Mississippi. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvbj7gk4.11

Serial Selves: Identity and Representation in Autobiographical Comics

Book
Køhlert, F. B. (2019)
Serial Selves: Identity and Representation in Autobiographical Comics. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Autobiography is one of the most dynamic and quickly-growing genres in contemporary comics and graphic narratives. In Serial Selves, Frederik Byrn Køhlert examines the genre’s...

Introduction: Comics and the Anarchist Imagination

Journal Article
Køhlert, F. B., & Laursen, O. B. (2017)
Introduction: Comics and the Anarchist Imagination. SubStance, 46(2), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1353/sub.2017.0015

Working it Through: Trauma and Autobiography in Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Journal Article
Køhlert, F. B. (2015)
Working it Through: Trauma and Autobiography in Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. South Central Review, 32(3), 124-142. https://doi.org/10.1353/scr.2015.0035

Brown, Chester

Book Chapter
Køhlert, F. B. (2014)
Brown, Chester. In M. K. Booker (Ed.), Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood

Doucet, Julie

Book Chapter
Køhlert, F. B. (2014)
Doucet, Julie. In M. K. Booker (Ed.), Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood

Stuck Rubber Baby

Book Chapter
Køhlert, F. B. (2014)
Stuck Rubber Baby. In M. K. Booker (Ed.), Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood

Louis Riel

Book Chapter
Køhlert, F. B. (2014)
Louis Riel. In M. K. Booker (Ed.), Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood

Cruse, Howard

Book Chapter
Køhlert, F. B. (2014)
Cruse, Howard. In M. K. Booker (Ed.), Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • Cassia Hayward-Fitch: “I Was Drawn This Gay: Queer Community Activism in the Serial Comics of Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse” (PhD, 2021–)
  • Logan Scott: “Ecosystemic Writing: A Multi-Modal Approach to the Representation of Climate Change in Fiction” (PhD in Professional Practice, 2021–)
  • Morénike Giwa Onaiwu: “Bringing Fire to the People: Activist Scholarship, Creative Collaboration, and International Advocacy through the Lens of Black Disability Studies” (PhD by Publication, 2022)
  • Alexander Turton: "Sunbeam Braid: Verbal Solidarity and Quantitative Approaches to Comics Theory and Criticism" (PhD, 2021)
  • Francis Agnoli: "Animating Race: Seeing and Hearing Race in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra" (PhD, 2019)