Faculty Profile for Dr. Nithya Sivashankar

profile photo for Dr. Nithya Sivashankar
Dr. Nithya Sivashankar
Assistant Professor — English
Flowers Hall 249
phone: (512) 245-3718
Scholarly/Creative Work
Service

Biography Section

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.

Teaching Interests

 Children's Literature, Adolescent Literature and World Literature

Research Interests

 Picturebooks, Contemporary Children's and Adolescent Literature, Literature about Forced Displacement, Postcolonial Children's Literature, Historical Fiction for Children, and Rhetorical Narrative Theory

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • 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

Selected Service Activities

Editorial Review Board Member
Journal of Children's Literature
October 28, 2022-Present
Member
MA Literature Committee
January 19, 2021-Present
Member
Major/Minor Committee
January 19, 2021-Present
Editor
Research on Diversity in Youth Literature
August 2021-Present
Reviewer / Referee
Children's Literature
August 18, 2024-October 17, 2024