Core research areas:

My research interests lie in literary and critical theory, representation and culture studies, the postmodernist historical novel and humanities education. I am currently researching the intersections of literature, the humanities, peace studies and peace education.

Ongoing research:

1. Research on critical and cultural literacy practices through reading strategies in a variety of classroom contexts for adult learners (teachers, teacher educators, student teachers and postgraduates).
2. Literature Studies and Humanities Education
3. Peace Studies and Peace Education: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Some recent conference presentations:

“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.

Participated in the National Symposium on ‘Literatures of West Asia’, organized by Stella Maris College, Madras University, on 29th September 2006.

Participated in an in-house Symposium on Virginia Woolf, organized by the English Department (South Campus), Delhi University, in February 2005.

Presented a paper titled “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 guide:

Masters:

●       Research on Social and Emotional Learning in Schools (completed)

●       Research on role of teacher beliefs in promoting gender equity and equality (completed)

●       Effectiveness of teacher training program in in-service teacher education in Kunduz province, Afghanistan (completed)

●       Role of folk literature in Pashto language education (completed)

●       Teaching Pashto as second language in the classroom (completed)

MPhil:

Role of oracy in language learning (ongoing)

Teaching of English in BMC schools (ongoing)

PhD:

Teaching metaphors to school students (ongoing)

Biblical retellings in contemporary times (ongoing)

Education and Child Rights (ongoing)

Other peer review experience:

●       Reviewer for article in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly on Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

●       Reviewer for proposed manuscript on Communicative English; commissioned by Routledge India.

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:

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. “‘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, Published online 3rd March 2020.

Jayendran, Nishevita. “Literature for Literacy: Strategies for Critical Thinking in the Classroom”. Language and Language Teaching (Issue 16), Special issue on Literacy 8.2 (July 2019): 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”, has been published by Rawat Publications in a book titled Cultural Narratives: Hybridity and Other Spaces (2012).

"Miniatures and the Ottoman Empire in Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red". Nishevita Murthy and Prof. 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. (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.

ONGOING: Applied Learning Modules in the Humanities (World of Work)

I'm part of a team that is developing modules in the Humanities for Delhi Schools of Excellence that strengthens skills tohat can be mapped to select professions in the world of work. The project involves curriculum and material development and faculty support to teach the humanities modules to students from grades 9-12 in Schools of Excellence in Delhi. 

More about the project: http://edudel.nic.in/sose/humanities.html 

Field action research projects (as PI and Co-PI) - Recent

Co-PI in UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report on the role of Non-State Actors in Teacher Education and Teacher Preparation, commissioned by UNESCO Paris (December 2020 – October 2021) - report has been submitted for review | expected release of report is July 2022.

Past field action research:

• 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.
• Anchored (PI) research 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.

Other projects: 

1) Lead in compiling report on review of the Draft National Education Policy (2019); report submitted to MHRD and NCERT on 30th July 2019.

2) 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.

3) Course instructor and lead for design and development of MOOC on Teaching Literature: Strategies for Short Stories for adult learners and school teachers. (ongoing, from December 2017) as part of the Reflective Teaching Using ICT (RTICT) certificate program under the Connected Learning Initiative (CLIx)

4) Part of review and redesigning team for the MOOC on Communicative English Language Teaching. (ongoing, from April 2018) under the RTICT program in CLIx.

5) Part of a team for design and development of a MOOC on First Language Pedagogy, as part of the MA Education (Teacher Education) course for school teachers in Afghanistan.

6) Part of team for finalizing the report submission for UNESCO award for use of ICT in Education in January 2018. CLIx won this award in March 2018.

7) Worked as part of the CEIAR team on a national evaluative report of the CSSTE (Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Teacher Education) scheme. I was part of 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 field survey conducted across 91 institutions from June-August 2017.

8) Designing curriculum and lesson contents in Communicative English for students of higher secondary in under-priviledged states in India (January 2016 – August 2018) under the CLIx project.

9) Anchored research on autonomy in language learners, based on field surveys and testing of lesson modules (August 2016 – August 2018) under the CLIx project.

Consultancy/Guest Faculty:

- Consultant for the SCERT at West Bengal for review of the modules developed in house in communicative English.
- Mentor for designing a game on violence as a social issue for adolescents
- Consultant for designing a course on Women’s Studies for Kannur university, undergraduate program
- Guest Faculty for conducting a Writing Lab at the Center for Policy Studies (CPS), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) from October-November 2020 (ongoing). The work involved curriculum design, development for an online learning platform and conducting the sessions for 7 weeks of student engagement in critical reading and writing skills.

Regular Teaching Programmes

1)     ‘Language Education - 1’, MA Education (Regular) program at CETE, TISS, Mumbai.

2)     ‘Teaching of English’, MA Education (Regular) program at CETE, TISS, Mumbai.

3)     Developed and teaching MPhil/PhD course on ‘Textual Interpretation and Discourse Analysis: A Humanities Perspective’, TISS, Mumbai.

4)     ‘Introduction to Language’ (Paper 1) and ‘PCK-2 on Teaching of Literature’ (Paper 3) in the integrated B.Ed./M.Ed. programme at CETE, TISS Mumbai.

5)     Developed and conducted a 6 credit Writing Policy for postgraduate and doctoral students of public policy at the Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay (August – October 2020, August – October 2021).

6)     2 credit optional course on 'Reading World Literature: Fiction and Nonfiction' (ongoing)

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)
- Designing curriculum and lesson contents in Communicative English for students of higher secondary in under-priviledged states in India (January 2016 – present)

Workshops:

❖    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.