This was an invited paper as part of the British Sociological Society Postgraduate Forum event on Innovative Visual Methods (22.11.16). #Visual16

1. Visual Storytelling:
A Tale of Research Translation for
Wider Engagement?
Dr Katy Vigurs, Staffordshire University
@drkatyvigurs #Visual16

2. “Uni is a bit of a safe haven and
then you go out, and you don’t
know what’s going to happen,
whether you’re going to be
broke.”
“I live at home and I’d like to
move out but then I can’t do
that on just a McDonald’s
wage, or I could, but I’d be
stuck in that job forever.”
“The debt just hangs there like
a black cloud.”

3. “I want to commission a student illustrator to create four ‘visual vignettes’ (like
grown-up comic strips) based upon the findings from the SRHE project to tell the
story of the findings in a more human, succinct and accessible way, which will aid
wider public engagement with the research. The resulting visual vignettes will be
uploaded to the University’s website and linked to the full research report. This
will allow the research findings to be disseminated to a wide, international
audience via micro-blogging tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.”
Institutional REF Support Fund
Call for Proposals
November 2015
I submitted a proposal to carry
out an impact strategy.
I budgeted £1500 to employ
an artist.
Plus £300 for printing.

4. Met with Course Leader
for BA Cartoon & Comic
Arts in January 2016.
Met his 30 final year
students and set a live
selection brief to recruit
an artist.
Gave the students two
anonymised interview
transcripts. They were
tasked with turning each
into a one-page comic
strip .
Four student artists
responded to the selection
brief.

6. Four students. Different styles. Alternative visual interpretations.
This developed my ‘graphic imagination’. I revised my plan.
From four ‘visual vignettes’ to a full comic book.
I employed all four students artists.

7. Turning eight interview transcripts and the research report into a comic book.
Storyboards and script writing.
Researcher and artists working together.
Negotiating the graphic representations.
Ongoing processes of interpretation.
Seeing the research through student artists’ eyes.

9. I’d allowed four months to make the comic.
It took six months.
Support and flexibility was important.
We were all learning.

27. Is the journey complete?
Not yet.
What other audiences are there?
How else can the comic be used?

28. The research-informed comic can be accessed for free here:
www.srhe.ac.uk/downloads/vigurs-katy-003.pdf
Please do share it with others.