Ph.D. (English), Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai,
M.Phil. (English), Stella Maris College, Madras University,
M.A. (English), Delhi University,
B.A. (Hons) English, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University
Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences,
V. N. Purav Marg, Deonar,
Mumbai-400088.
Nishevita Jayendran is an Assistant Professor (Literature, Language and Humanities) at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, where she teaches courses on language education, critical and cultural literacy and discourse analysis of non/fiction to postgraduate students. She has been Visiting Guest Professor at the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) at IIT Bombay, where she designed and taught a 6 credit Writing Policy course to Masters and PhD students.
She is the author of Language Education: Teaching English in India (June 2021), published by Routledge, UK and India.
She has been a part of the English team in a scalable educational project (the Connected Learning Initiative, or CLIx) that designed, developed and researched the impact and outcomes of ICT-based interactive modules in Communicative English for high school students in India. She is also a consultant for Design Thinking in humanities education. She has conducted workshops and mentored organisations in developing ICT-based educational modules on themes like language learning, gender equity and violence, using Design-Based Research.
Nishevita has developed MOOCs on pedagogies of literature for secondary, higher secondary and college teachers in India, and has published in the areas of literary criticism and critical pedagogies.
As a researcher, Nishevita specializes in qualitative methodologies, multimethods and mixed method approaches, with an emphasis on narrative inquiry, textual criticism, critical discourse analysis and case study. She is also fluent with ethnographic research. She has been part of large scale research and evaluation projects that range from autonomous language learning practices among students, learning gains in CALL spaces for communicative English and critical literacy practices in the language classroom to policy interventions in national centrally sponsored schemes on teacher education and the role of non-state actors in teacher education (UNESCO GEM report).
Her teaching and research interests lie in representation and critical theory, the postmodernist historical novel, comparative world literature, narrative, discourse analysis and (inter)cultural studies. Her ongoing research explores the convergence of these disciplinary perspectives in peace studies, critical humanities and education.
Professional membership and positions:
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6455-4661
For a glimpse into other interests, please visit: NJ's Studio
Core research areas:
My research interests lie in literary and critical theory, contemporary curriculum studies, representation and culture studies, the postmodernist historical novel and humanities education. I am currently researching the intersections of literature, the critical humanities, peace studies and education.
Ongoing research:
Some recent conference presentations:
“Silence, Resilience and the Liminal: The Poetics and Politics of Representation in Sarnath Banerjee’s Doab Dil (2019)”, at the 20th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, University of Aegean, Rhodes, Greece, 20-22 June 2022.
“Humour and Representational Politics in Gerard Durrell’s The Garden of the Gods (1978): The Case of Margo’s Turk” at the online international interdisciplinary conference on ‘Spaces and Places’ organized by Progressive Connexions (UK) on 27th and 28th March 2021.
“Set Me Free: Spaces and the Politics of Creativity in Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (2016)” at the interdisciplinary conference on ‘Spaces and Places’, organized by Progressive Connexions in Bruges, Belgium from 13-14 April 2019.
“Adaptation and/as Agency in Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (2016)” at the Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS 2018), organized by the International Academic Forum (IAFOR) at Kobe Art Centre, Kobe, Japan, from 1st - 3rd June 2018.
Invited keynote speaker at Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai, for the Annual Seminar on Research in Social Sciences, where I spoke on “The Value of Qualitative Research: Reflections on Narrative Methods”, 26th November 2017.
“Task Complexity, Peer Interaction and Learner Autonomy: A Case Study” as the Featured Speaker at the 7th International Conference on Language, Education and Innovation to be held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 20th – 21st May 2017.
“The Value of Story-making in Language Acquisition” at the International Conference organized by the Critical Edge Alliance at Roskilde University in Denmark, from 22nd-24th June 2016.
“The Re/birth of the Storyteller in Salman Rushdie’s Luka and the Fire of Life (2010)” at the International Conference on ‘Storytelling: Global Reflections on Narrative’, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, from 2nd-4th May 2015.
Presented a co-authored paper titled “Mobility, Representation and Performance: The Politics of the Headscarf in Orhan Pamuk’s Snow” at the International Conference on ‘Mobility and Creativity’, at the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, on 3rd-4th July 2009.
Presented a co-authored paper titled “Miniatures and the Ottoman Empire in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red” at a workshop on ‘The Nation: Narratives and Communities’, organized and sponsored by CENS-RSIS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, on 2nd March, 2009.
Presented a co-authored paper titled “‘Imagined worlds are more potent than real ones. …’ The Reading Group as Community Narrative in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran” at a National Seminar in Jaipur, organized by IRIS, on ‘Community Narratives’ in March, 2008.
Participated in the Symposium on ‘Literature and Critical Theory’, organized by IRIS at Jaipur, on 14th March, 2008.
Presented a paper “Imperialism in To Sir, With Love” at the Seminar on ‘Imperialism and Literature’, organized by the English Department, Lady Shri Ram College for Women in 2002.
Research Guideship:
Completed:
Masters:
- Research on Social and Emotional Learning in Schools
- Research on role of teacher beliefs in promoting gender equity and equality
- Effectiveness of teacher training program in in-service teacher education in Kunduz province, Afghanistan (interntional scholar, Afghanistan)
- Role of folk literature in Pashto language education (interntional scholar, Afghanistan)
- Teaching Pashto as second language in the classroom (interntional scholar, Afghanistan)
- Peace education through stories for primary students in Maldives (international scholar, Masters)
- GCE and peace education in the literature classroom in Maldives (international scholar, Masters)
- Literature and political cartoons in social studies textbook to build critical literacy
M.Phil.:
- Understanding Talk in an Indian Language Classroom (completed)
Ongoing:
Ph.D.
On critical humanities -
- Contemporary Retellings of the Bible
- Safety, education and agency in rehabilitation centres for children
- Environmental Humanities and Critical Literacy in Young Adult Fiction
- Multiliteracy in Adolescent Learners
Masters
On Critical Literacy –
- Storytelling and critical literacy in the humanities
- Teachers’ perception of critical literacy
- Aesthetic reading to build agency among adolescents
- Teachers' perception of cultural literacy and the English classroom
On Peace Education –
- Reading for Peace
Recent publications:
Books:
Nishevita Jayendran, Anusha Ramanathan, Surbhi Nagpal. (June 2021). Language Education: Teaching English in India. UK and India: Routledge.
Nishevita (Jayendran) Murthy. (2014). Historicizing Fiction/ Fictionalizing History: Representation in Select Novels of Umberto Eco and Orhan Pamuk. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Articles/Book Chapters/Journals:
Invited public talks:
Current (curriculum design and development):
- Humanities and the World of Work (Co-PI)
This is a curriculum design, development and implementation project in the humanities for students of grades 11 & 12, in Delhi board's Schools of Specialised Excellence for Humanities and Social Sciences. The WoW modules involve designing of curriculum in selected areas of the humanities and social sciences that build skills like storytelling, visualisation, mapping, teaching and legal discourse that map to specific professions. A unique feature of this project is a work bench that provides a simulation of an authentic work environment to the students and gives them an immersive professional experience in working at their chosen work place/career. The scope of the project includes building curriculum frameworks for the program and individual modules within the program, development of students and teacher handbooks and research in the conceptualisation and implementation of the program.
- Curriculum and Teacher Professional Development – ‘Transmedia Storytelling’ in the Humanities and Social Sciences for secondary and higher secondary students in Delhi Board’s Schools of Excellence that map to the World of Work. (October 2021 – July 2022). [completed]
More about the project: Delhi Schools of Specialised Excellence - Humanities and Social Sciences
- English Studies and the New Humanities (co-PI)
- Curriculum and programme lead - Continuous Professional Development Programme in English Studies and the New Humanities (under development, December 2021 – present). This is a module design, development and implementation project, with research, on English studies and professional development of educators and educationists, teachers and students of English. It is located within the higher education domain and within the discourse of (critical) curriculum studies.
Research project: ongoing
Conflict and Resilience in South Asia: Perspectives on Sustainability and Social Well Being (Co-PI)
Field action research projects (as PI and Co-PI) - Completed
Regular Teaching Programmes
1) ‘AS3: Language Education - 1’, Advanced Specialisation, MA Education (Regular), CETE, TISS, Mumbai.
Content keywords: Philosophy of language; Literacy (new literacies | multiliteracies | critical literacy | cultural literacy); Critical curriculum studies; Critical pedagogy
2) ‘PO6: Textual Interpretation and Discourse Analysis: A Liberal Arts Perspective’, Thematic open elective, PhD, TISS Mumbai.
Content keywords: Discourse analysis; Hermeneutics; Qualitative research methods and methodology; Critical theory; CDA (Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis); MMDA (Gunther Kress' Multimodal Discourse Analysis); Secular criticism (Edward Said); Case study, narrative inquiry, oral history, ethnography, autobiography, literary criticism.
3) ‘PS1: Introduction to Language’ (Paper 1), Pedagogic Specialisation, B.Ed./M.Ed., CETE, TISS Mumbai
Content keywords: Introduction to language; Theories of language; Theories of language learning; Policies on language learning and education; English studies in India
4) ‘PS3: PCK-2 on Teaching of Literature’ (Paper 3), Pedagogic Specialisation, B.Ed./M.Ed, CETE, TISS Mumbai.
Content keywords: Literature, Literary criticism and theory; Genre; Critical curriculum for literature studies; Critical pedagogies, theories and methods; Assessment for/as/of learning.
5) ‘Reading World Literature: Fiction and Non-Fiction’, CBCS, MA + B.Ed./M.Ed., TISS, Mumbai.
Content keywords: World literature; South Asian literature; Indian literature in English and translation; Latin American writing; Middle East literature; Afro-American literature; Canadian literature; Third world literature; Fourth world literature; Women's writing; Genre studies; Postcolonial literature; Cosmopolitanism and diaspora; Peace and conflict studies; Anthropocene.
6) ‘Comparative World Literature: Prose, Poetry and Drama’, BA Social Science, TISS Mumbai (module development)
MOOCs and ODL:
- Course instructor and lead for design and development of MOOC on Teaching Literature: Strategies for Short Stories for adult learners and school teachers. (offered on TISSx since April 2019) - offered annually
- Designing curriculum and lesson contents in Communicative English for students of higher secondary in under-priviledged states in India (January 2016 – 2018) - completed
Workshops: