I study children’s and young adult literature, with particular emphasis on material culture, psychoanalysis, and the medical humanities. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at the University of Florida, where I also hold a Certificate in Women’s Studies.
My dissertation, Material Objects and Subjectivity in Contemporary American Children’s Literature: Three Case Studies, explores everyday objects in children’s stories that highlight the limits of human understanding and thus encourage a more ethical relationship with the nonhuman world. I am also developing a second project on children’s literature and the medical humanities, which examines texts for young readers that contribute to bioethical education and narrative medicine.
My work has appeared in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Children’s Literature in Education, International Research in Children’s Literature, and Mosaic. I am the 2024 recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats/Janina Domanska Research Fellowship, and my article on Ezra Jack Keats received the 2025 Children’s Literature Association Graduate Student Essay Award (Ph.D. Division).
I have designed and taught upper-level seminars and introductory surveys, including “Golden Age of Children’s Literature,” “Uncommon Reads: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Writing About HerStory: Women in Poetry,” and “Survey of British Literature: Medieval to 1750.” My teaching combines archival research with digital projects such as podcasts and interactive story maps to help students enhance their understanding of the evolution of societal norms and cultural values. In recognition of this work, I received the 2025 Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Award from the Department of English at the University of Florida.
You can reach me at ma.khorasani@ufl.edu for questions and collaboration initiatives.
