Dr. Castellano is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Literature Teaching at the University of València. She holds a Ph.D. in Language, Literature and Culture (UV) and has been awarded with research fellow scholarships at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queen Mary University of London and Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal). Author of the essay awarded book Les altres catalanes. Memòria, identitat i autobiografia en la literatura d’immigració (2018), she has also published several journal articles related to postcolonial literature, identity construction and multimodal approaches in L2 teaching. A former high school teacher and former director of the CEFIRE specific of Multilingualism (Centro de Formación, Innovación y Recursos para el Profesorado), she has also been General Director of Education Innovation and Academic Planning for the Valencian Government. She is a member of the research groups Lit(T)erart, ELCIS and LIJMI.
During her research stay at the Centre of Book Cultures and Publishing (CBCP) she will carry out a project entitled Picturebooks and multimodal readings: enhancing students’ critical thinking through Children and YA’s literature, which has received a grant from the sending institution.
Specifically, Dr. Castellano’s interests are aligned with the CBCP annual conference Publishing Anti-fascism and, during her stay, she will investigate how contemporary picturebooks and graphic novels shape audiences through an anti-fascism awareness in a global perspective.