Staff Profile

I am British Academy Global Professor of Children's Literature specializing in the history of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic children's literature and publishing. I was previously a Leverhulme Visiting Professor (2015-2016) at Newcastle, and have worked with Seven Stories Centre for Children's Books as well as the British Library, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals on issues of diversity and inclusion in children's literature.

Qualifications

PhD thesis, 'The Imagination and the Imagined Nation: Post-1945 British Children's Fantasy' (1999), School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University.

MA in the Writing and Study of Children's Literature, Hollins University, 1995.

Research Interests

• Contemporary Black British writers for children
• Children's publishing
• Radical activism and children's literature, particularly after 1945
• Nationalism and children's literature

Current Work

I am currently working with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) on their Reflecting Realities project to record and publish statistics on British publishing and diversity, as well as advising the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) on ways to increase awareness and understanding of diverse and inclusive children's books in their Carnegie medal judging processes. 

Research into Black British children's literature and work with various children's literacy and literature organisations across the country has led to my current project on children's book awards and Black British book creators. The project aims to assess the impact, economically and emotionally, of winning or not winning children's book awards on Black British authors and illustrators. Within the project the ideas of cultural prestige and economic benefits of different types of awards (those based on literary merit, for example, versus those focused on social impact) will be interrogated.

Postgraduate Supervision

In previous academic posts, I have supervised graduate thesis work in Black British and Caribbean literature for children. I would be very happy to hear from students interested in working in these areas, or in projects concerning contemporary children's literature and nationalism (particularly work on British "values" or citizenship education and children's literature). Here at Newcastle, I have supervised students working in multiple areas of children's literature, including children's literature and blindness, British children's literature and migrants, and tween girl literature.

I teach SEL8685, Children's Literature and Black Britain, on the MA taught programme; in certain years, this module is also offered to third-year undergraduate students as SEL3446.

• Articles

  • Pearson L, Sands--Connor K, Subramanian A. Prize Culture and Diversity in British Children’s Literature . International Research in Children's Literature 2019, 12(1), 90-106.
  • Sands-O'Connor K. Punk primers and reggae readers: Music and politics in British children’s literature. Global Studies of Childhood 2018, 8(3), 201-212.
  • Sands-O'Connor K. A Medal for Walter: Representations of Black Britons and World War I. Lion and the Unicorn 2017, 41(2), 231-249.

• Authored Books

  • Sands-O'Connor K. Diversity and Inclusion in Young Adult Publishing, 1960-1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
  • Sands-O'Connor K. British Activist Authors Addressing Children of Colour. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
  • Sands-O'Connor K. Children's Publishing and Black Britain, 1965-2015. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
  • Sands-O'Connor K. Soon Come Home to this Island: West Indians in British Children’s Literature. Routledge, 2008.

• Book Chapter

  • Sands-O'Connor K. Learning Not to Hate What We Are: Black Power, Literature and the Black Child. In: Harde, Roxanne; Kokkola, Lydia, ed. The Embodied Child: Readings in Children's Literature and Culture. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018, pp.43-56.

• Editorial

  • Pearson L, Sands-O'Connor K, Subramanian A. Curating National Literatures. International Research in Children's Literature 2019, 12(1), v-vii.