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Overview

The University of British Columbia offers a Master of Arts in Children’s Literature (MACL), jointly offered by the Department of English Language and Literatures, the Creative Writing Program, the Department of Language and Literacy Education, and the School of Library, Archival & Information Studies. The program provides specialized education for graduate students in the study of children’s and young adult literature and media using a multi-disciplinary approach. It provides each student with the opportunity to study the creation, publication, and dissemination of this literature, to examine models of sharing its rich heritage with the young, and to undertake literary, social, historic, and psychological analyses of writing for youth. This multi-disciplinary approach exposes students to many schools of literary criticism, educational theory, and professional and creative practice. It acquaints students with the broad canon of children’s literature across a range of cultures, and with a variety of critical perspectives and professional applications. Across various disciplines, departments, and faculties, a broad range of courses provides disciplined, academic study of children’s and young adult literature and media.

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21
Enrolled students
80.8%
Graduation rate
3.3
Average years to completion
* 50% of students receive this amount of funding or more per year in the first 2 years after deducting tuition and fees.

What makes the program unique?

The MACL Program is the only Master's program in children's literature in the world offered from a broad, multidisciplinary perspective, and the only Master's in children's literature offered in Canada. The program is unique in that the two faculties and four academic units jointly provide faculty, courses, thesis supervision, and committee support to give the graduate academic study of children’s literature a perspective on the full life cycle of the literature – the creation of the literature (through Creative Writing), its critical analysis (through English), and pedagogical approaches to the literature in interaction with children in schools, homes, and libraries (Language and Literacy Education; School of Library, Archival & Information Studies).

Faculty in these departments are authors of both acclaimed children's books and scholarly studies of writing for the young. They serve on national and international children’s book juries, lead national research studies, and have received awards for scholarship, service, and teaching.

The University Library collections in historical and contemporary children’s books and the critical study of children's literature are considered among the strongest such collections in an academic library in Canada, including some 4,000 early and rare children's books and some 50,000 modern children’s books. As well, the Library maintains a large collection of research materials on children's literature, including histories, criticisms, bibliographies, catalogues, and biographies.

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