Core research areas:

My research interests lie in literary criticism, 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 liberal education.

Ongoing research:

1. Curriculum Studies, Humanities and Liberal Education
2. Critical and cultural literacy praxis through reading and creative writing strategies in a variety of classroom contexts for adult learners (teachers, teacher educators, student teachers and postgraduates).
3. Literature, Peace Studies and the Humanities
4. Peace Studies, Education and Pedagogy: A Multidisciplinary Approach

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  

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

M.Phil.:

-        Understanding Talk in an Indian Language Classroom (completed)

Ongoing: 

Ph.D.

On critical humanities -

-        Subaltern Aesthetics and Contemporary Retellings of the Bible (synopsis completed)

-        Safety, education and agency in rehabilitation centres for children 

-        Environmental Humanities and Critical Literacy in Young Adult Fiction 

-         Multiliteracy in Adolescent Learners

Masters

- Bollywood Films as a Public Pedagogy

- Critical Media Literacy in School Curriculum

- Folktales and Cultural Literacy in Paite Community, Manipur 

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:

• Jayendran, Nishevita. (June 2023). "Liminality, Representation, Silence: The Poetics and Politics of Sarnath Banerjee's Doab Dil (2019)". Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 70.1, 49-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20512856.2023.2225005.  
• Thomas, Jennifer and Nishevita Jayendran. (January 2021). "Design-Based Research for Technology Enabled Language Learning: From Theory to Practice". FORTELL Journal of Teaching English Language and Literature 42: 98-106. ISSN: Print 2229-6557, Online 2394-9244.
• Singh, Ajay Kumar, Raja Shekhar Satyavada, Tushar Goel, Padma Sarangapani, Nishevita Jayendran. (31st October 2020). “Use of EdTech in Indian School Education during COVID-19: A Reality Check”. Economic and Political Weekly LV.44: 16-19.
• Jayendran, Nishevita. (3rd March 2020). “‘Set me free’: Spaces and the Politics of Creativity in Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (2016)”. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/20512856.2020.1735037.
• Jayendran, Nishevita. (July 2019). “Literature for Literacy: Strategies for Critical Thinking in the Classroom”. Language and Language Teaching (Issue 16), Special issue on Literacy 8.2: 21-26. ISSN: 2277-307X. 
• Jayendran, Nishevita. August 2018. “Adaptation and/as Agency in Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (2016)”. Published as proceedings of the Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS2018), held at Kobe, Japan, from 1st – 3rd June 2018 (pp. 91-101). ISSN: 2187-4751. Accessible and downloadable from the URL: http://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/conference-proceedings/ACCS/ACCS2018_proceedings.pdf.
• Jayendran, Nishevita, Lavanya Murali, Anusha Ramanathan, Jennifer Thomas, Sujata Bhonsale, Surbhi Nagpal, Mayuri Kulkarni. “Task Complexity, Peer Interaction and Learner Autonomy: A Case Study”. International Journal of Language, Literature, Culture and Education Issue 1 (February 2018). ISSN: 2462-1846.
• Jayendran, Nishevita, and Anusha Ramanathan. 2018. “The Value of Story-Making Activities in the English Classroom”. Language and Language Teaching (Issue 13): 47-51.
• Jayendran, Nishevita. 2018. “Perspective as Politics in Volga’s The Liberation of Sita (2016)”. Published as proceedings of the national conference of the 62nd AICTE, Osmania University, Hyderabad (18-20 January 2018).
• Article titled “The Personal and the Political in Mithra Venkatraj’s A Warped Space: A Novel (2013)”, published as a book chapter in a compilation of review articles on Venkatraj’s novel titled Mithravali: Mithra Venkatraj Abhinandana, by Dept. of Kannada, Bombay University, January 2016. Edited by H. B. L. Rao and Dr. G. N. Upadhya.
• Book chapter titled “The Re/birth of the Storyteller in Salman Rushdie’s Luka and the Fire of Life (2010)”, in The Practice of Narrative: Storytelling in a Global Context, edited by Michael Heitkemper-Yates and Ana Penjak, published by Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary.Net (IDN) Press, 2016.
• A modified version of the paper presented at the National Seminar on ‘Community Narratives’ in Jaipur, “'Imagined worlds are more potent than real ones': Reading Lolita in Tehran: The Reading Group as Community Narrative”, published by Rawat Publications in Cultural Narratives: Hybridity and Other Spaces (2012).
• "Miniatures and the Ottoman Empire in Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red". Nishevita Murthy and Sudha Shastri, Journal of Turkish Literature, Issue 7 (2010): 72-86. (This is a modified version of the paper presented at CENS, Singapore, 2009).

Invited public talks:

• Nishevita Jayendran. (25th November 2024). Invited online lecture on “World History and Fiction in Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke (2011)”, TISS-PARZOR collaboration on Parsi Culture and Heritage Studies.

• Nishevita Jayendran. (27th September 2024 – 6th October 2024). Workshop on ‘South Asian Literatures in English and Translation’ as part of the Reading Writers Across Cultures series, organised under the Special Interest Group (SIG) – Literature, ELT@I, India.

• Nishevita Jayendran (11th October 2023). Panelist on "Multilingualism, Mother Tongue Instruction and Global Citizenship: Challenges and Strategies in a Globalised World" at the 17th International and 53rd Annual Conference of ELT@I on 'English for Global Citizenship: Multiple Teaching Acts and Learning Experiences' at Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, 11th - 14th October 2023.
• Nishevita Jayendran. (24th February 2023). “Literature and Peace Studies: Critical Pedagogies for the Language Classroom". Plenary Speech in the National Webinar on Content-Based Language Teaching: Implications for ESL in India organised by the School of Distance Education, University of Kerala and ELT@I from 23-25 February 2023 in the online mode. View the talk here: Literature and Peace Studies 
• Nishevita Jayendran. (21st June 2021). Language Teaching and Research in Education. Resource person for Faculty Development Program on “Pedagogy and Research Skills Development”, organized by the Dept. of English, Amity University, Mumbai.
• Nishevita Jayendran. (23rd May 2021). Literature and the New Humanities: Reading Ambai’s “A Deer in the Forest” (1994, 2003). Invited talk as part of the online international webinar series (Webinar 54) organized by ELTA@I, India.
• Nishevita Jayendran. (13th March 2021). Understanding Creative Writing as Critical Thinking. Resource person for online workshop, organized by the Dept. of English, GITAM School of Gandhian Studies and ELT@I, Vishakapatnam Chapter.
• Nishevita Jayendran. (22nd January 2021). Critical Literacy and the Humanities. Invited talk organized by GITAM, Vishakkapatnam and ELT@I, Vishakapatnam Chapter.
• Nishevita Jayendran. (22nd December 2020). Design Thinking and the Teaching of English. Guest lecture organized by St. Mary’s College, Thoothukkudi, TN.
• Ajay Singh and Nishevita Jayendran. (23rd July 2020). Sources and Skills Needed to Receive Research Funding. Part of a national webinar series on ‘Honing Skills in Research’, organized by Meston College of Education, Chennai.
• Nishevita Jayendran. (5th June 2020). Discourse Analysis: Research and Literacy in the Language Classroom. International webinar organized by ELT@I and GITAM.
• Sarangapani, Padma, and Nishevita Jayendran. (20th May 2020). Reflections and Suggestions on Using Technology in Indian Schools and Universities. National webinar organized by the School of Education at VELS Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai.

Resource person - Invited: Malaviya Mission Teacher Training (MMTT)

1.      Nishevita Jayendran. (26th March 2025). NEP Sensitisation Training (Online) on “Higher Education and Society: The Value of the Humanities”, UGC-MMTT Centre, Hansraj College, Delhi University, New delhi.

2.      Nishevita Jayendran. (24th March 2025). Invited resource person for Faculty Development Program under IQAP, KES Shroff College, Kandivali, Mumbai on “How to Make Classrooms Inclusive”.

3.      Nishevita Jayendran (3rd March 2025). NEP Sensitisation Training (Online) on “Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education: The Value of the Humanities”, UGC-MMTT Centre, MS University, Baroda.

4.      Nishevita Jayendran. (28th February 2025). NEP Sensitisation Training (Online) on “Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education”, UGC-MMTT Centre, Hansraj College, University of Delhi, New Delhi.

5.      Nishevita Jayendran. (22nd January 2025). NEP Sensitisation Training (Online) on “Higher education and Society: Curriculum and Pedagogy”, UGC-MMTT Centre, Hansraj College, Univerity of Delhi, New Delhi.

6.      Nishevita Jayendran. (20th January 2025). NEP Sensitisation Training (Online) on “Higher Education and Society: Global Trends”, UGC-MMTT Centre, Hansraj College, University of Delhi, New Delhi.

7.      Nishevita Jayendran. (14th June 2024). National Education Policy (GoI) Sensitisation Training (Online) on “Higher Education and Society”, UGC-MMTT Centre, University of Sambalpur, Odisha.

8.      Nishevita Jayendran. (24th May 2024). Faculty Development Programme, Atomic Energy Central School – 4 (AECS 4), BARC, Mumbai, on “Gender Equity: Perspectives and Pathways”.

9.      Nishevita Jayendran. (26th April 2024). Online workshop on ‘Higher Education and Society’ at the Faculty Development Program (FDP), by the UGC-MMTT Centre, University of Punjab.

10.  Nishevita Jayendran. (28th March 2024). Online workshop on ‘Higher Education and Society’ at the Faculty Development Program (FDP), by the UGC-MMTT Centre, University of Calcutta.

11.  Nishevita Jayendran. (21st March 2024). Workshop on ‘Outcome Based Education: Curriculum and Praxis’ at the Faculty Induction Program (QIP Cell) in KES Shroff College, Kandivali.

12.  Nishevita Jayendran. (6th March 2024). Online workshop on ‘Gender Equity and (Non) Violence: Perspectives and Pathways’ at the national Faculty Induction Program (FIP) at the University of Calicut, Kerala for Asst. / Associate Professor organised by UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC), University of Calicut.

13. Nishevita Jayendran. (1st - 2nd March 2023). "Gender Equity and Violence (I&II)". Resource person (invited) to conduct sessions at a national Faculty Induction Program (FIP) at the University of Calicut, Kerala for Asst. / Associate Professor organised by UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC), University of Calicut from 08-February 2023 to 09 March 2023.

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.

- Consultant and Content Expert for evaluating test items for English Language Assessment, Lighthouse Learning Teacher Assessment Test (LTAT) - October 2024 - March 2025.

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

• Co-PI in UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report (Background Paper) on the Role of Non-State Actors in Teacher Education and Teacher Preparation, commissioned by UNESCO, Paris (December 2020 – October 2021). Complete report can be accessed here: UNESCO GEM Background Paper: Role of NSAs in Teacher Education
• Worked as part of the CETE (formerly, CEIAR) team on a national evaluative report of the CSSTE (Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Teacher Education) scheme. I was involved in data collection, documentation, consolidation and analysis as part of the evaluative study. I also comprised the report writing team in generating a consolidated analysis of the findings of the functioning of TE institutes in 11 States and 2 UTs in India based on a field survey conducted across 91 institutions from June-August 2017.
• Lead in research study on autonomy in language learners, based on field surveys and testing of lesson modules (August 2016 – August 2018). The study looked at module design, students’ perceptions of language learning, classroom observations, interaction and discourse analysis to investigate practices that can promote autonomy among students in a communicative English language lab. The study covered qualitative data of over 100 students in Mizoram.
• Anchored (PI) a research study on the Learning Outcomes of a scalable ICT-based interactive language learning module on Communicative English. The study investigated students’ learning gains within a controlled environment to understand the impact of CALL (Computer Aided Language Learning) spaces on the listening and speaking skills of students across 12 schools in Aizawl, Mizoram, between April - July 2018.

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)     'CETE_NC_01: Reading Writers Across Cultures', Value Added Course (NEP aligned syllabus), Open Elective, MA + B.Ed./M.Ed., TISS Mumbai

Content keywords: Sustainability, Resilience, 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.

7)     ‘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:

• Resource person (13th October 2023). "Literature and Global Citizenship Education: Exploring Interdependence and Intercultural Competence through Meaning Making Acts" at the 17th International and 53rd Annual Conference of ELT@I on 'English for Global Citizenship: Multiple Teaching Acts and Learning Experiences' at Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, 11th - 14th October 2023.
• Organiser and resource person (17th - 19th May 2023). "Peace Studies, Education and Pedagogy: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Peacebuilding" at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
• Resource person (1st - 2nd March 2023). "Gender Equity and Violence (I&II)". Invited to conduct sessions at a national Faculty Induction Program (FIP) at the University of Calicut, Kerala for Asst. / Associate
  Professor organised by UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC), University of Calicut from 08-February 2023 to 09 March 2023.
• Resource person for workshop on "Literature, Cultural Literacy and Discourse Analysis: A Generative Approach", at the ELT@I conference, 8th - 10th December 2022, Mumbai.
• Resource person for sessions on "Peace Education for the Planet", at the Rachana Fellowship Winter School for student teachers, at CETE, TISS Mumbai, from 26th November - 1st December 2022.
• Key resource person for an online Teacher Professional Development workshop on ‘Critical Theory and the Literature Classroom’, Kandivali, Mumbai (6th – 8th July 2022).  
• Resource person for a two-day online workshop on ‘Understanding Creative Writing’, organized jointly by Tata ClassEdge and CETE, TISS Mumbai on 25th August and 27th August 2021, for teachers and teacher educators across India.
• Resource person at a workshop on Design Thinking in Education (18th March 2021 – 24th April 2021) for faculty of DIETs, CTE, IASE and SCERT at Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
• Conducted workshop on “Understanding Creative Writing” on 19th December 2020 for teachers, student teachers and teacher educators as part of a School Synergy initiative at CEIAR.
• Part of the Design Thinking Workshop (25 Sept - 15 Nov, 2020) at CEIAR, TISS Mumbai for school teachers and educationists, conducted online. The activities included design thinking using technology, to identify and define a pedagogical challenge, ideate, create prototypes of the solution, test and iterate on it.
• Workshop on ‘Language for Literacy: Teaching English in India Today’ from 2nd-6th March 2020. I was part of the coordination and organising team as well as a core facilitator for the 5 day workshop that saw participants from across the country and from various professional backgrounds (NGOs, student teachers, teachers, college teachers and school teachers of English)
• Workshop on ‘Mindful Reading for Mindful Understanding’ on 28th February 2020 for school teachers in the Mumbai region.
• Workshop on Design Thinking in Education for CTE, DIET and SCERT faculty of Raipur, Chhattisgarh, from 27th-29th January 2020 (on invite).
• Workshop on ‘Understanding Creative Writing’ on 15th January 2020 for students and teachers in schools and B.Ed. colleges in the Mumbai region,
• Key coordinator for the Educational Design Workshop 2019 at CEIAR, TISS, Mumbai conducted between 27-31st May 2019. Also one of the core facilitators in the 5 day activities around design thinking using technology, to identify and define a pedagogical challenge, ideate, create prototypes of the solution, test and iterate on it.