Biography and education
I am an Assistant Professor who teaches courses on children's literature, adolescent literature and world literature. I have a PhD in Literature for Children and Young Adults from The Ohio State University with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in South Asian Studies, and an MA in Writing for Children from University of Central Lancashire. My research has been published in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles in Children's Literature in Education, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, The ALAN Review and Journal of Children's Literature, and has also appeared as part of several edited collections.
In the past, I have worked as an editor at Karadi Tales, a children’s publishing house in India.
In the past, I have worked as an editor at Karadi Tales, a children’s publishing house in India.
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Jackson, S. E., Sivashankar, N., & Degener, R. M. (2025). Critical Peritextual Analysis: Critical Possibilities of Peritext in Books for Young Readers. Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, 6(2). Retrieved from https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/rdyl/article/view/1607
- Jackson, S., Degener, R. M., & Sivashankar, N. (2022). “The Roots Beneath the Fruit: Reading for Justice and Action in Picturebooks about Food. Journal of Children’s Literature, 48(1), 7–18.
- Sivashankar, N., & Viswanath, T. (2021). Beyond Bollywood: Identifying and Analyzing Problematic Stereotypes in Indian American Young Adult Novels. The ALAN Review, 48(2), 51–63.
- Sivashankar, N., Jackson, S. E., & Degener, R. (2019). Centering the Margins: Investigating Relationships, Power, and Culture through Critical Peritextual Analysis. Children’s Literature in Education, 51, 490–501.
- Sivashankar, N. (2019). Religion, Riots and Rift: Representations of the Partition of 1947 in English-Language Illustrated Books. Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, 1(2). Retrieved from https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/vol1/iss2/3
Featured service activities
- Editorial Review Board Member
Journal of Children's Literature
- Member
MA Literature Committee
- Member
Major/Minor Committee
- Editor
Research on Diversity in Youth Literature
- Reviewer / Referee
Children's Literature
- Reviewer / Referee
Faultlines: Narratives of Criminality, Punishment and Social Justice in Children's and Young Adult Literature