This page is a mix of Comics as scholarship, and examples of alternative scholarship more generally. I get a lot of requests about this, and will update as I hear of other examples. Feel free to contact me with other examples and I’ll add to the list. Tnx! – Nick
Also, for general examples of comics being used as research (not specifically as scholarly theses/dissertations) please see this collection of links here.
Comics-as-Scholarship
Nick Sousanis – Doctoral Dissertation in Education at Columbia University entirely in comics 2014 (Chronicle Article); Published by Harvard University Press 2015, lots of info on Unflattening here, my press page, and all over this site by hitting the dissertation, Unflattening, or Interviews categories on my blog sidebar.
I’ve done other comics of a similar sort, including this piece for PMLA, subsequently republished by Franklin Humanities Center here, sans paywall.
Meghan Parker Masters Thesis Art Education from Simon Fraser University 2018. Info here from CBC, from SFU, plus – my twitter thread on Meghan’s thesis and the resistance we encounter…
Marie-Jeanne Jacob Masters Thesis Art Education from Concordia University 2014 Thesis available here

Kay Sohini in progress Dissertation as comic & Stony Brook U – article on Mental Health, Comics, & The Grad Student
Liz Kozik in progress Dissertation Comics on Wisconsin Prairies at UW-Madison
Maureen Burdock dissertation as graphic novel – at UC Davis
Article by Maureen Burdock Unflattening Scholarship with (Auto)graphic Research – Alternative Francophone Journal
Nicholas Alexander Brown in progress dissertation as comic at Texas Christian University
Dragana Radanović in progress dissertation as comic at Luca School of the Arts, Belgium
Article on Emmanuelle Dufour’s comic as doctoral research

A 2013 roundup I put together of people doing research in comics at the time

Chapter on doing Comics-Based Research, co-authored with Marcus Weaver-Hightower and Paul Kuttner
K.L. Graywill Master of Science visual dissertation Visual Language of Pain

Mai Stewart Medical Student at Temple Making Cartoons to Address Stress of Med School

Article on Kate Thomas, on working in Graphic Essays as Scholarship
SocioLogica special issue (May 2021) on comics as sociology scholarship
Article on Koni Benson Comic book version of her dissertation – Crossroads: I Live Where I Like
Chris Bailey Researching Visual Play Experiences – monograph in comics form

Alternative Scholarship

AD Carson Doctoral Dissertation as Rap Album Clemson University 2017
Obasi Shaw Senior Thesis as Rap Album Harvard English Department 2017
Amanda Visconti Digital Doctoral Dissertation (“Infinite Ulysses”) University of Maryland College Park 2015 – see it here (Conversation at U Virginia between Carson, Visconti and myself on nontraditional dissertations)
2016 Article in the Chronicle on job prospects for alternative dissertators (including Visconti, Sousanis…)
2020 Article in the Chronicle on changing the PhD and alternative dissertators (w/Carson, Visconti, Sousanis as still “radical outliers”)
2020 Interview with AD Carson on the First Ever Peer Reviewed Rap Album – Listen to the album, I Used to Love to Dream (UM Press)
Katina Rogers site on Next-Generation Dissertations – new approaches to humanities scholarship

Julia Molinari on what makes writing academic (examples of new scholarship) (Molinari’s forthcoming 2022 book of the same name)
Edited collection “Re-Imagining Doctoral Writing” wonderful set of essays on new forms of scholarship
Reimagining the PhD Event in Manchester Poet & Composer
Andrew Jakubowicz article on Beyond Static Text – on innovative publishing in the Humanities
Rachel Kaminski-Sanders Fashion Show as Dissertation University of Georgia, Athens 2018 article
Anna Williams University of Iowa 2019 – Podcast Dissertation The New Sounds of a Dissertation, details from Williams on Gothic Dissertation, the Daily Iowan article, & podcast on her podcast dissertation
More on Anna Williams‘s podcast dissertation & here in the Guardian, in El País, and her Gothic Dissertation Website, where it all lives now.
Laurie Gatlin sketchbook as dissertation
Katie Shellie – Hyper Island U 2017 – Podcast Masters Thesis
Angela Lundin Simon Fraser University 2019 – One Woman Show for Masters Thesis in Education
Alexia Petasis University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2018 Choreographed Dance to Unflattening
Justin Wigard’s in-progress Video Game as dissertation at Michigan State University
Vivek Vellanki’s Passport Photo dissertation project at Michigan State University
Jason Helms scholarly article as online game Play Smarter Not Harder
Naomi Salmon dissertation form proposal – overview of Alt-dissertations