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Dr. Nithya Sivashankar

  • Assistant Professor - English
Portrait of Dr. Nithya Sivashankar

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 Journal of Popular Romance Studies, 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

Research Interests

  • Viswanath, T., & Sivashankar, N. (2025). “I’d really really like a boyfriend”: Adolescence, Ideology, and Subjectivity in Indian/Indian American YA Netflix Romances. Journal of Popular Romance Studies.
  • 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.
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  1. Member

    MA Literature Committee

  2. Member

    Major/Minor Committee

  3. Editorial Review Board Member

    Journal of Children's Literature

  4. Member

    TKL Committee

  5. Editor

    Research on Diversity in Youth Literature

  6. Reviewer / Referee

    Children's Literature

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