Lisa Sainsbury

Associate Professor of Children's Literature

Chair of the National Community of Researchers in Children's Literature (NCRCL)

I have been a member of this internationally renowned community since 1996. I am proud to work with such an outstanding team of scholars, both in the NCRCL and in the wider subject area of English and Creative Writing (ECW). The NCRCL is committed to research excellence and I work with colleagues to inspire, facilitate and extend scholarship in the field of children's literature.

Research Programme Leader for the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

TECHNE DTP, Academic Institutional Lead (Roehampton)

Series Editor of Bloomsbury Academic's flagship list: Perspectives on Children's Literature

Current Titles in the series: The Courage to Imagine, (2017) Roni Natov; From Tongue to Text: A New Reading of Children's Poetry, (2017) Debbie Pullinger; Adulthood in Children's Literature, (2018) Vanessa Joosen; Fashioning Alice: The Career of Lewis Carroll's Icon, 1860-1901, (2019) Kiera Vaclavik; Literature's Children: The Critical Child and the Art of Idealisation, (2019) Louise Joy; Rereading Childhood Books: A Poetics, (2019) Alison Waller; Irish Children's Literature and the Poetics of Memory (2021) Rebecca Long; Space, Place, and Children's Reading Development (2022) Margaret Mackey; British Activist Authors Addressing Children of Colour (2022) Karen Sands-O'Connor; British Children's Literature and Material Culture (2022) Jane Suzanne Carroll; The Dark Matter of Children's 'Fantastika' Literature: Speculative Entanglements (2023) Chloé Germaine; British Children's Literature in Japanese Culture: Wonderlands and Looking Glasses (2023) Catherine Butler; Serialization, Commercialization and the Children's Classics: British Series from the 20th Century (2025) Amy Webster; Children's Publishing in Cold War France: Hachette in the Age of Surveillance and Control (2025) Sophie Heywood.

Current Research

My broad field of research is philosophy and children's literature, as reflected monographs for Bloomsbury - Ethics in British Children's Literature: Unexamined Life (2013) and Metaphysics of Children's Literature: Climbing Fuzzy Mountains (2021). I am also interested in environmental issues and eco-criticism in the context of children's literature and youth culture. 

Areas of Research Interest in Children's Literature and YA

Applied Ethics and Metaphysics; Postmodernity; Electronic & Digital Narrative; Environmental Ethics and Eco-Criticism; Poetry; Historical Fiction; Illustration and Visual Texts; Critical Writing; Music and Sound related to childhood culture.

Publications

• Sainsbury, L. 'On the Ridge Between Bull Banks and Watership Down: Eco-Ontology and the Negotiation of Environment’, in Watership Down: From Animal Fantasy to Ecological Reality, eds Catherine Butler and Dimitra Fimi, Mississippi University Press: Children’s Literature Association Series. Forthcoming Summer 2026. 
• Sainsbury, L., Kümmerling-Meibauer, B. & Vallone, L. 'Writing Book Proposals' in eds Kimberley Reynolds, Matthew O. Grenby and Emily Murphy, Children's Literature Studies: Conducting Research and Building a Career. Forthcoming 2026.
• Sainsbury, L. Metaphysics of Children's Literature: Climbing Fuzzy Mountains. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘‘But The Soldier’s Remains Were Gone:’ Thought Experiments in Children’s Literature.’ Children’s Literature in Education, Volume 48, No.2, June 2017.
• Sainsbury, L.‘Childhood, Youth Culture and the Uncanny: Uncanny Nights in Contemporary Fiction for Young People.’ In: Butler, C; Reynolds, K, ed. Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction, 2nd Ed. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2014.
• Sainsbury, L.‘Chronotopes and Heritage: Time and Memory in Contemporary Children’s Literature,’ In: Butler, C; Reynolds, K, ed. Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction, 2nd Ed. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2014.
• Sainsbury, L. Ethics in British Children’s Literature: Unexamined Life. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
• Sainsbury, L. and Hunt, P. Illustrated Children’s Books. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2009.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘A Boy’s Duty: Ethics and Masculinity.’ In: Bottala, P; Santini, M, ed. What are Little Boys and Girls made Of? Unipress: Padua, 2009, pp. 67-85.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘Rousseau's Raft: Interaction and Transformation in Electronic Books for Children.’ In: Collins, F; Ridgman, J, ed. Turning the Page: Children’s Literature in Performance and the Media, Peter Lang: Oxford, 2006, pp.207-226.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘Politics and Philosophy in the Work of Raymond Briggs.’ In: Reynolds, K, ed. Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2005, pp.227-249.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘Game On: Adolescent Texts to Read and Play.’ In: Black, J; Mallan, K; Pearce, S, ed. Youth Cultures: Texts, Images, and Identities. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003, pp.155-167. (Winner of IRSCL Honour Award.)
• Sainsbury, L. ‘Tales from the Mouse House: Playing with Reading on CD-ROM.’ In: Bearne, E; Watson, V, ed. Where Texts and Children Meet. Routledge: London, 2000, pp.82-97.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘Exploration of textual space in the (dis)location of adolescence.’ Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, 1999, 7, 313-324.
• Sainsbury, L. ‘Information Playgrounds: Children’s Reference and Multimedia.’ In: Hancock, S, ed. A Guide to Children’s Reference Books and Multimedia Material. Ashgate Publishing Ltd: Aldershot, 1998, pp. 145-187

PhD Students

Completed PhDs

Liz Thiel: The Fantasy of Family: Nineteenth-Century Children's Literature and the Myth of the Domestic Ideal. Awarded 2006.

Noga Applebaum: Control Shift: Interfaces of Technology and Children's Literature Through the Dimension of science Fiction Written for Children. Awarded 2008. (AHRC Funded)

Julie Cross: The 'Highs' and 'Lows' of Humour: Funny Junior Fiction from 1960 Onwards. Awarded 2009.

Simon Machin: Ripping Yarns: The Breaking of Masculine Codes in 'Boy's Own' Adventure Stories, 185501940. Awarded 2016.

Karen Williams: Humour in Children's Literature 1800-1840. Awarded 2017.

Anne Malewski: Growing Sideways: Shifting Boundaries Between Childhood and Adulthood in Twenty-First Century Britain. Awarded 2019.

Kay Waddilove: Motherhood in 1950s Children's Literature. Awarded 2019.

Manuela Salvi: The Disempowered Author: Pre-censorship, Self-censorship, and the Challenge of Children’s Literature. Awarded 2020.

Oliver Lewis: Porous Masculinities: Unstable Surfaces, Fluid Identities, and Embodiment in Early Modern Performance (c. 1590-1640). Awarded 2024.

D Mortimer: The Butch Diaries. Awarded 2024.

Harry Brooks-Kent: Poetry and Care. Awarded 2024.

Current PhDs

Mark Carter: As easy as ABC? A Study of English Language Alphabet Books - 2020 to Present.

Rufus Vaughan-Spruce: Study of a Collection, In Indian Ink: The Journalistic Origins, Evolutionary Process and Literary Significance of Kipling's 'Departmental Ditties and Other Verses’ - 2021 to Present.

Evelyn Reidy: 'Very Small Trouble: Power, Performance, and Protest in Seventeenth Century Wells' - 2021 to Present.

Catherine Archer-Richards : The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Readers - 2022 to Present.

Denise Batchelor: An exploration of the relationship between vulnerability and love - 2022 to Present.

Kirara Akashi: 'The Tragical Comedy, or Comical Tragedy of Edward Gorey: Unravelling the Dark Humours of Childhood Culture in Neo-Victorian Picturebooks' - 2023 to Present.

Ala' Kraman: 'Empowering Displaced Children: Reimagining Urban Spaces with Children' - 2024 to Present.

Please contact me if you would like to study with me at Roehampton in the NCRCL & the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences: English and Creative Writing.

MA/PD in Children's Literature (Distance Learning)

Critical and Theoretical Perspectives; Ecology, Environment, and Youth Culture; British Children's Literature: Historical Perspectives.