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Sobha Kavanakudiyil, Ed.D., is a theatre practitioner, scholar, and higher education leader whose work sits at the intersection of creative practice and teacher preparation. She serves as Director of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at The City College of New York and is a founding faculty member of the program. Her work bridges artistic practice, scholarship, and community engagement to prepare theatre educators who center identity, equity, and representation in their teaching and leadership.
At City College, Dr. Kavanakudiyil has developed community-centered initiatives, including the Harlem Children’s Theatre Festival, the Arts Integration Residency Program, and Creative Play Workshops that connect the university with schools and families across New York City.
Dr. Kavanakudiyil also works as an arts education consultant, collaborating with organizations including the Arthur Miller Foundation, Tectonic Theatre Project, Harlem Stage, NJPAC, the Apollo Theater, and the New Victory Theater. Her expertise in arts education includes strategic planning, program evaluation, arts integration, devising theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, and Moment Work.
She has served as a reviewer for the Brooklyn Arts Council, Arts Education Policy Review, and the New York State Council on the Arts. She previously served a five-year term as Co-Chair of the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and Co-Chair of the Face-to-Face Conference, the largest arts education conference in New York City. She continues to serve the organization as Chair Emeritus and is also a member of the Arts Committee, which reports to the NYC Department of Education Chancellor’s Panel on Educational Policy.
Dr. Kavanakudiyil earned her Ed.D. in Higher Education from Fairleigh Dickinson University, an M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University, and a B.A. in Communications from Fordham University. Her dissertation, (Re)Imagine Theatre Education Teacher Preparation in Higher Education, integrates qualitative research and ethnodrama and introduces the VOICE Reflective Framework, a strategic tool designed to help theatre education programs advance equity across curriculum, mentorship, recruitment, and institutional culture. Her work centers on equity-centered teacher preparation, curriculum design, graduate program leadership, creative practice as scholarship, and questions of identity and representation in the performing arts. Her research contributes to national conversations in theatre education. As the daughter of immigrants, her work is deeply informed by questions of belonging, access, and representation in arts education.
Dr. Kavanakudiyil has participated in the Fulbright Specialist Program and has received citations from the City of New York and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. Earlier in her career, she worked in television news with WABC-TV, Fox 5 News, and NBC News, where she assistant field produced the Emmy-nominated documentary segment Living Dangerously for Dateline NBC. She has also taught at New York University and Hudson County Community College and regularly presents at national conferences, including EdTA, AATE, NJEA, and the NYU Applied Theatre and Pedagogy Conference.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sobha-kavanakudiyil-93666665/

www.sobha.net  www.ccny.cuny.edu/edtheatre

@mssobhaK @ccnyeducationaltheatre @ccny_edtheatre

EDCE 4100F Developing Curriculum in Non Traditional Settings

EDCE 7700A Drama in Education

EDCE 6000F Conflict Resolution Through Theatre

EDCE 3700C Fundamentals of Teaching Theatre

EDCE 3600C Theatre for Youth and Young Audiences

EDCE 7400C Teaching Literacy through Drama

EDCE 4400C Arts Integration

EDCE 2209I Creating an Ethnodrama I

EDCE 2210I Creating an Ethnodrama II

EDCE 7203G The Reflective Artist Practice 

EDCE 7900A Devising Theatre

EDCE 7600A Artistic Lab I

EDCE 7601A Artistic Lab II

Student Teaching Supervisor