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Maria Nikolajeva
Before coming to the University of Cambridge in 2008 to take up the post of Professor of Education, Maria Nikolajeva taught children’s literature and literary theory at Stockholm University, Sweden, for 25 years. She has been a guest professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, Åbo Akademi University, Finland and San Diego State University, USA. She is an honorary professor at the University of Worcester. She has lectured extensively on five continents and given papers at over 60 conferences, including many keynote addresses. Her academic honours include a Fulbright Grant and a research fellowship at the International Youth Library, Munich. She is the author and editor of many books and contributor to numerous professional journals and essay collections. She has led several major research projects and was the coordinator of a five-year Nordic postgraduate training programme funded by the Nordic Academy for Advanced Studies. She is a member of the editorial boards of several international journals and was one of the senior editors for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. In 2002–2008 she served on the jury of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and in 2005 she received the International Brothers Grimm Award for a lifetime achievement in children’s literature research. In 2010 Maria was appointed Director of the Cambridge-Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature that has gained substantial international reputation. In 2010, she organized, in collaboration with Mary Hilton, the international conference The Emergent Adult: Adolescent Literature and Culture and in 2015 she co-organized, with Dr Zoe Jaques, Alice Through the Ages.