Professor Simon Grennan

Professor of Art and Design, Associate Dean Research and Innovation, Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Education

School for the Creative Industries
Dr Simon Grennan

Dr Simon Grennan is Professor of Art and Design and Associate Dean, Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Education at the University of Chester, UK. He provides strategic leadership support to the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Executive Dean, to shape, implement and deliver the University's Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategy and relevant Key Performance Indicators, including the Research Excellence Framework and Knowledge Exchange Framework and Postgraduate Research provision. Professor Grennan is an internationally active research scholar, securing external academic and public funding and outputting with a wide range of partners. He teaches, supervises and, since 1990, has co-directed a commercial visual arts studio.

University of Chester Appointments

  • 2023-01-09 to present | Associate Dean, Research and Innovation (Faculty of Arts, Humanities , Social Sciences and Education)
  • University of Chester, Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, Chester, United Kingdom1 Jan 2023
  • 2023-01-01 to present | Professor of Art and Design
    University of Chester, Art and Design, Chester, United Kingdom1 Jan 2023
  • 2012-02-01 to 2022-12-31 | Leading Research Fellow (Art and Design)
    University of Chester, Art and Design, Chester, United Kingdom1 Feb 2012 - 31 Dec 2022

Non Academic Positions

  • 1990-06-01 to present | Director
    Grennan & Sperandio, Wrexham, Houston, UK, US1 Jun 1990

Professor Grennan supervises and examines a wide range of postgraduate research and taught degrees as senior supervisor and supervisor. He has co-written, delivers and examines undergraduate modules across Visual Arts, Design and English.

Research Degree Supervision

  • "Pedagogies of the Crafts, Jaipur"  1 Sep 2023 Joint supervisor
  • "The Lives and Afterlives of Nineteenth-Century Literary Garden Spaces" 1 Sep 2023  Joint supervisor

Professor Grennan undertakes visual narrative research and knowledge exchange in three related areas: theory, history and practice. He has particular interests in the global experiences and histories of drawing, comic strips and comic strip genres, nineteenth-century and post-colonial word-and-image and periodical publishing.

Research and Knowledge Exchange Institute

Culture and Society Research and Knowledge Exchange Institute

 

Media 

Monograph Publications

Grennan, S. (2017) A Theory of Narrative Drawing. New York: Palgrave

Grennan, S. (2015) Dispossession: a novel of few words. London: Jonathan Cape

Grennan, S. (2015) Courir deux lièvres. Brussels: Impressions Nouvelles

Forthcoming Monograph Publications

Grennan, S. (2018) Drawing in Drag London: Book Works

Original Databases and Resources

Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2016) The Marie Duval Archive 

Co-authored Publications

Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2018) Marie Duval. London: Myriad Editions

Forthcoming Co-authored Publications

Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2019) Marie Duval: maverick Victorian cartoonist. Manchester: University Press

Edited Publications

Grennan, S. and Grove, L. (Eds.) (2015) Transforming Anthony Trollope: 'Dispossession', Victorianism and 19th century word and image. Leuven: Leuven University Press

Chapters

Grennan, S. (2018) ‘The Marie Duval Archive’: memory and the development of the comic strip canon in Ahmed, M. and B. Crucifix (Eds.) Memory in Comics: archives and styles New York: Palgrave

Grennan, S. (2017) The Enduring Power of Comic Strips in Chorpening, K and R. Fortnum (Eds.) The Wiley Companion to Contemporary Drawing London: Wiley Blackwell

Grennan, S. (2017) The Influence of Manga on Graphic Novels in Baetens, J., Frey, H., and Tabachnick, S. (Eds.) The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Grennan, S. (2016) Failing recognition: habit, facture and imagination in the work of Andrei Molotiu and Carlos Nine. in Rommens, A. and Turnes, P. (Eds.) Abstraction and Comics. Liege: University Press of Liege.

Grennan, S. and Miers, J. (2015) Dispossession’: time, motion and depictive regimes. in Grennan, S. and Grove, L. (Eds.) Transforming Anthony Trollope: 'Dispossession', Victorianism and 19th century word and image. Leuven: Leuven University Press

Grennan, S. (2014) Recognition and resemblance: facture, imagination and ideology in depictions of cultural difference in Hague, I. (Ed.) Representing multiculturalism in comics and graphic novels. London: Routledge

Grennan, S. and Skilton, D. (2014) 'Dispossession': considering drawing style, genre and register in Saltzman, E. and Tabachnick, S. (Eds.). Drawn from the Classics: Essays on Graphic Adaptations of Literary Works. New York: McFarland

Grennan, S. (2014) Competence in your own enactment: subjectivity and the theorisation of participatory art in Round, J. and Thomas, B. (Eds.) Real lives, real stories: narrative of ordinary and extraordinary people across media. Bristol: Intellect

Academic Peer Reviewed Journal Papers

Grennan, S. (2016) Misrecognising Misrecognition: the Capacity to Influence in the Milieux of Comics and Fine Art. Image [&] Narrative Issue 17.4.

Grennan, S. (2015) Arts practice and research: locating alterity and expertise. International Journal of Art and Design Education (iJADE), 34.2, P95 – 105.

Grennan, S. (2014) Drawing ‘Dispossession’: A New Graphic Adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s Novel ‘John Caldigate’. European Comic Art, Vol 7, Issue 2

Grennan, s. (2013) Register in the guise of genre: instumental adaptation in the early comics of Grennan & Sperandio. Studies in Comics, Vol. 4, Issue 1

Grennan, S. (2012) Demonstrating discours: two comic strip projects in self-constraint.  Studies in Comics, Vol. 2, Issue 2

Academic Peer reviewed Conference Paper

Grennan, S. (2018) Journal serialisation and the patterning of events: Marie Duval parodies the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions of 1870, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1878 and 1880. British Association of Victorian Studies Conference, Exeter.

Grennan, S. (2018) The Comics of Marie Duval: Page, Stage and Street in 1870s London. Nordic Summer University ‘Comics and Society’, Turku.

Grennan, S. (2018) Drawing in Drag: self-observation, the dissenting subject and stylistic reformation in the production of a new pseudonymous comic album. ‘Creating Comics, Creative Comics Symposium, University of South Wales Cardiff.

Grennan, S, Ernesto Priego and Peter Wilkins (2018) Hypotactic correspondences between Tonkoma four panel manga, emotional ambiguity and story, in styling and drawing the comic ‘Parables of Care: creative responses to dementia care’. ‘Creating Comics, Creative Comics Symposium, University of South Wales Cardiff.

Grennan, S. and Roger Sabin (2018) The Marie Duval Archive: Memory and the Development of the Comic Strip Canon. Ninth International Graphic Novels and Comic Conference, Bournemouth.

Grennan, S. (2017) Language bordering depiction: Cohn’s ‘visual language’ theory contradicted by experience of the iconic sign. International Conference of Graphic Novels, Bandes Dessinées and Comics, Dundee.

Grennan, S (2017) Constrained drawing in Seth’s’ Clyde Fans Book One’. IAWIS/AIERTI Triennial Conference, University of Lausanne.

Grennan, Ian and I. Hague (2017) What happened and what happens: choice and the significance of pre-existent stories in comics and games narratives. Narrative and Alternative Stories Conference. University of Chester.

Grennan, S. Wilkins, P, Ernesto Priego (2017) Parables of Care: instrumentality, aesthetics and utility in devising a comic for dementia caregivers. Comics and Medicine Conference, Seattle.

Grennan, S and L. Hall (2017) Literary and historic ‘flâneuses’: observation, commentary, enterprise and courage in late nineteenth-century women’s professional lives. Talking Bodies Conference, University of Chester.

Grennan, S. (2016) Drawing contra enunciation: mark, body and mind in conceptions of trace and index, from Francis Bacon to Philippe Marion. iJADE conference, University of Chester.

Grennan, S. (2016) Dumping the Body: graphiation as mind, mark and trace. Seventh International Conference on Graphic Novels and Comics, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Grennan, S. and I. Hague (2016) Medium, Knowedge, Structure: capacities for choice and the contradiction of medim-specificity in games and comics. ACME Research Group Conference, University of Liege.

Grennan, S. (2016) Vision, Visulisation and Resemblance: depiction and abstraction in two comics by Nine and Molotiu. Comics in Culture Conference, Uniwersytet SWPS Warsaw.

Grennan, S. (2015) ‘Dispossession’: uses of encumbrance and constraint in visualising Trollope’s style, in a new graphic adaptation of his 1878-79 novel ‘John Caldigate’, Trollope Bicentennial Conference, KU Leuven

Grennan, S. (2015) Misrecognising misrecognition: the capacity to influence in the milieux of comics and fine art. Amsterdam Comics Conference

Grennan, S. and Sabin, R. (2015) Being at home abroad: Londoners ‘ong continong’ (on the continent) in the 19th century comics of Marie Duval, 6th Graphic Novel and Comics Conference and 9th Bande Desinee Society Conference, Paris.

Grennan, S. (2015) Journeys of the self: Marion’s partial ‘mediagenius’ and the motive reader in comparitive theories of intersubjectivity, 6th Graphic Novel and Comics Conference and 9th Bande Desinee Society Conference, Paris.

Grennan, S (2015) The facture of ‘Dispossession’: trace, colour, light and time in a new graphic adaptation of Trollope’s 1879 novel ‘John Caldigate’, Comics and Adaptation, University of Leicester.

Grennan, S., Sabin, R. and Waite, J. (2015) Depiction as comedy and truth: women’s dress in Marie Duval’s drawings for ‘Judy’ 1869 – 1885, Dressing and Undressing the Victorians, University of Chester.

Grennan, S. (2014) Rationalising practice as research: making a new graphic adaptation of a Trollope novel of 1879, League of European Research Universities SSH Group, Cambridge University.

Grennan, S. (2014) Plot, picture and practice: comics, picture books and illustrated literary fiction, Retreiving Illustration Conference, University of Agder, Norway

Grennan, S. and Hague, I. (2014) Play as narration: ‘Composition No1’ and ‘Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ , 9th ComFor Conference, Berlin

Grennan, S. and Hague, I. (2014) It's a book! It's a game! It's 'Building Stories'! Play, Plot and Narration in Graphic Narrative, Fifth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, London

Grennan, S. (2014) 'Dispossession': Considering Drawing Style, Genre and Register in a New Graphic Adaptation of Anthony Trollope's 1878-79 Novel 'John Caldigate', International Association of Word and Image Studies Conference, Dundee.

Grennan, S. (2013) From time to time: the untold stories of depictive drawings, International Bande Desinée Society, University of Glasgow

Grennan, S. (2012) Empowerment requires power: absence, equilibrium and the capacity to influence in comics representations of cultural difference, Comics Forum, Leeds

Grennan, S. (2012) Demonstrating discours: two comic strip projects in self-constraint. First International Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, Alcala de Henares

Grennan, S. (2012) Register in the guise of genre: instrumental adaptation in the early comics of Grennan & Sperandio. Third International Comics Conference, Bournemouth

Grennan, S. (2012) Drawing and adjudication: subjectivity and consensus in theory and practice. Drawing Research Network Conference, Loughborough.

Grennan, S. (2011) Demonstrating discours: two comic strip projects in self-constraint’ Comica Conference 'Transitions 2', London

Grennan, S. (2010) The story of the story: alterity, intentionality and subjectivity in comics theory and practice, paper presented to Comics Forum, Leeds

Grennan, S. (2010) Three experiments with drawing style: time and the displaced subject in comic strips, International Association for Media and Communications Research Conference, Braga

Grennan, S. (2010) Positioning style: genre and the displacement of the subject in contemporary English language comic strips, Graphic Novels and Comics Conference, Manchester

Grennan, S. (2010) Reading Seth through appropriation theory, College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago

Conferences Organised

Grennan, S and Cheshire West and Chester City Council (2016) Light as Infrastructure. Two day international conference.

Exhibitions and Public Projects since 2014

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2018) Emblems ArtsNK, Sleaford.

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2017) The Social Fabric National Festival of Making, Burnley.

Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2016) Marie Duval: Laughter in the First Age of Leisure. Guildhall Library, London.

Grennan, S., Sabin, R., Waite, J. (2016) Marie Duval: Laughter in the First Age of Leisure. Illustrative Festival, Berlin.

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2016) Town/House Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar.

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space A+D Gallery, Chicago.

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space Innova, Milwaukee.

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis.

Grennan, S and C. Sperandio (2014) Cargo Space A+D Gallery, Chicago.

Qualifications

  • PhD Visual Narrative - University of the Arts London, London, United Kingdom  1 Oct 2008 - 1 Oct 2011
  • Master of Fine Art - University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, United States  1 Sep 1988 - 31 Jul 1990
  • BA Fine Art - University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom   1 Sep 1984 - 31 Jul 1988

Professional Activities

OFFICE HELD
Advisory Board, Rombach Wissenschaft Comics/History series
1 Sep 2023
Rombach Wissenschaft

EXTERNAL FUNDING BODY REVIEWER
Summative
1 Sep 2023

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Chair, Faculty Senior PGR Tutors Committee, University of Chester
4 Jan 2023

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Chair, Faculty Arts and Humanities Ethics Committee, University of Chester
1 Jan 2023

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Chair, Faculty Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, University of Chester
1 Jan 2023

OFFICE HELD
Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Comics and Graphic Novels
1 Jan 2023
Journal of Comics and Graphic Novels
COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Scientific Committee, ACME Comics on the Outside, Université de Liège
1 Jan 2020

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Academic Review Board, University of Chester
4 Jan 2018

CONSULTING / ADVISORY
Peer reviewer, Routledge, Oxford
1 Jan 2016

CONSULTING / ADVISORY
Peer reviewer, Springer Nature: Strassen, Luxembourg 
1 Jan 2016