Ana Janelidze

Biography

Ana is a PhD candidate in the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on the potential and affordances of picturebook-based multimodal literacy practices in complex sociolinguistic contexts. Her academic interests include picturebook materiality, arts-based research methods, embodied learning, visual literacy and second language acquisition. Ana holds M.Ed. in Human Development and Psychology (Harvard Graduate School of Education) and MA in Children’s Literature and Illustration (Goldsmiths, University of London). Her research interests emanate from her own practice as a picturebook illustrator as well as her work in policy development and research in education and early childhood development, with a particular focus on disadvantaged communities, including refugee children. Since 2014 Ana has worked in UNICEF contributing to advancing child rights agenda in early years education in Georgia, the Czech Republic, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Seven picturebooks illustrated by Ana have been published in Georgia and Australia (2017-2025), of which two have received National Literary Awards.