About us
Members of the research and teaching team are all distinguished scholars who have taught the subject over many years to undergraduate, postgraduate, advanced diploma, masters and doctoral students. Between them, they have published many highly-regarded books, chapters, articles and literary guides, and many have influential roles on the national and international stage.
Maria Nikolajeva is the Director of the Centre and an internationally recognised children’s literature scholar. She has lectured extensively in five continents, is on the editorial boards of several international professional journals and has contributed innumerable books, essays and articles to the field. In 2005 she received the International Brothers Grimm Award for a lifetime achievement in children's literature research.
Teaching team and associates
Gabrielle Cliff Hodges focuses on students' development as readers.
Georgina Horrell specialises in postcolonial criticism.
Zoe Jaques' interests include posthuman theory, ecocriticism and gender.
Louise Joy researches in Romanticism and eighteenth-century literature.
Abigail Rokison lectures on drama and specialises in Shakespeare.
Morag Styles pioneered the development of Children’s Literature courses in Cambridge and is the author of numerous books and articles on children’s literature, the organiser of many international conferences and events.
David Whitley researches in the area of film and poetry, and has a special interest in ecocriticism.
Mary Anne Wolpert teaches PGCE students and is especially interested in picturebooks.
PhD students and research topics
Ghada Al-Yaqout – the influences of paratexts on the picturebook series.
Nayla Aramouni – how young people in Lebanon feel about reading for pleasure.
Clementine Beauvais – contemporary politicised picturebooks and how they entice the child to modify the world.
Clare Freeman – young children's construction of identity in response to literature.
Sophia Katsifaraki – cognitive poetic approaches to adolescent fiction
Debbie Pullinger – children’s poetry and its relationship to the wider field of children’s literature.
Richard Shakeshaft – the role of technology in young adult fiction
Erin Spring – the influence of place on identity using Canadian fiction with young adults.
Susan Tan – dystopias in young adult fiction
Yi-Shan Tsai – Western and Asian readers' response to Manga
Ashley Wilson – the role of Christianity in historical and contemporary children's literature
Faye Dorcas Yung – authenticity in representations of East Asian culture in children's fiction
